Charles Schwab Cup Moves to Desert Mountain in 2012
Champions Tour’s Finale To Be Contested at Cochise Course
From the Arizona Golf Authority AZGA Golf News Desk
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The Champions Tour and the Desert Mountain Club announced today that its season-ending event, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, will be hosted next year by the Desert Mountain Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Cochise Course, one of six at the facility designed by golf legend Jack Nicklaus, will be the venue for the championship.
The top-30 players on the Champions Tour money-list at the conclusion of the 2012 season are eligible to compete in the limited-field event, to be played October 29 – November 4, 2012.
“The Champions Tour has a lot of history at Desert Mountain and we want to continue making history by bringing one of our premier tournaments to this quality venue,” said Champions Tour President Mike Stevens. “Our players are enthusiastic to return.”
Built in 1987, the 7,019 yard Cochise Course was the host venue for The Tradition, one of five major championships on the Champions Tour, for 13 consecutive years from 1989 to 2001. During that period, the Cochise Course was voted by Champions Tour professionals as the “Best Maintained Golf Course” on Tour and was consistently ranked in the national golf magazines’ top-100 lists.
Cochise Course - Desert Mountain Golf Club
Desert Mountain offers its members six private Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Courses, the most in one location anywhere in the world. The Cochise Course features rolling fairways surrounded by water and desert rock outcroppings. The hallmark of the course is the par-3 seventh hole and par-5 fifteenth hole where the double green for these two holes sits on a picturesque island, approached from two different directions.
“Desert Mountain has such a strong history not only in club and residential golf but in tournament golf,” said Nicklaus, a four-time winner of The Tradition on the Cochise Course. “The years during which Desert Mountain hosted The Tradition are an important part of the club’s first 25 years and its legacy, and the opportunity to host such a significant event as the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship is an ideal way to celebrate the start of the next 25 years in the Desert Mountain story.”
“Cochise is a great example of the variety of golf the members at Desert Mountain get to enjoy and among the reasons the club is so unique. It was a challenge to do six different golf courses on six different properties, and I believe we did a good job in creating courses and golf experiences that play in diverse ways. Of the six distinctive design approaches, Geronimo and Cochise were meant to be golf parks, with the sportier course being Cochise. Variety is the beauty of the overall golf experience there. I have said before, you would be hard-pressed to find a better golf complex in the world than Desert Mountain.” Visit Nicklaus Design at www.nicklaus.com and read the Cochise Course Overview.
Bob Jones, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager for Desert Mountain Club, shares the Club’s excitement in hosting the prestigious Schwab Cup event: “The anticipation of the Champions Tour professionals returning to Desert Mountain is exciting for the Club’s members and the community. What a fantastic way for us to showcase our Club and begin celebrating our 25th anniversary.”
John Cook is the two-time defending champion of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, winning at Sonoma Golf Club in 2009 and TPC Harding Park last year. Cook is seeking to become the first player in Champions Tour history to win the event three consecutive years.
The complete Champions Tour schedule for the 2012 season is expected to be finalized later this year, visit www.pgatour.com.