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Tournament of Champions Players Choose Dick's Open As Their Favorite
11/20/2009
Champions Tour golfers have voted the Dick's Open this year's recipient of the "Player's Award," an annual honor recognizing the golfers' choice for the top tournament on tour.
Nick Price wrapped up the 2009 Dick's Sporting Goods Open with some kind words for the Champions Tour's annual stop at En-Joie Golf Club.
"This is certainly, outside of maybe our major championships, one of the top three tournaments on our tour now," Price said this past June.
And months later, the praise continues.
Champions Tour golfers have voted the Dick's Open this year's recipient of the "Player's Award," an annual honor recognizing the golfers' choice for the top tournament on tour. The award was presented Tuesday night in San Antonio, Texas, site of this year's Champions Tour Tournament Association meetings.
"It's just a great honor," said John Karedes, tournament director for the Dick's Open. "I'm glad that we're able to share it with our volunteers, our sponsors, our title sponsor. We've been on the Champions Tour three years. It's three years of hard work to bring this tournament to being one of the premier events on the Champions Tour, and we're really, really honored.
"And because it comes from the players, the guys who are making their living week in and week out playing these different events. For them to recognize us as the best of the best really says something, and it's a credit to everybody involved in the Dick's Sporting Goods Open."
Lonnie Nielsen won the 2009 event, topping a field that included 22 of the top 30 golfers on the Champions Tour's money list.
Participants gave the course conditions at En-Joie rave reviews, and aided by free tickets for Saturday's second round -- made available by the sponsorship of the law firm Hinman, Howard and Kattell LLP -- the attendance was arguably the largest in tournament history.
The "Players Award" comes one year after the Dick's Open earned "Most Improved Event" honors from the Champions Tour. And Wednesday night, Karedes labeled Dick's Sporting Goods as the tournament's "foundation."
"Dick's, through their investment, gives us the tools to bring this event to the highest level," Karedes said, adding later: "We certainly couldn't survive without the other 600 sponsors, but we need that foundation, we need the tools that Dick's provides us during the year to make this all happen, so ultimately charity can be the winner."
Next year's tournament is scheduled for June 25-27.
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