Sutton returning to action with Champions debut

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Hal Sutton, a two-time winner of THE PLAYERS Championship, is poised to make his Champions Tour debut in two weeks at the Administaff Small Business Classic.

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Hal Sutton was honored with the Payne Stewart Award in 2007.

Sutton is scheduled to play in Houston and at the AT&T Classic in San Antonio the following week. Those are the final two full-field events before the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship that is open to the top 30 on the money list.

Sutton, who turned 50 on April 28, won 14 times on the PGA TOUR during a career that spanned two decades. Among those victories is the 1983 PGA Championship. Sutton's last win came in 2001 at the Shell Houston Open.

Winner of the 1980 U.S. Amateur, Sutton was often called the "next Jack Nicklaus" and he beat the Golden Bear by a stroke at Riviera when he was a wire-to-wire champ at the PGA. He also won for the first time at TPC Sawgrass that year, coming from four strokes off the pace to beat Bob Eastwood by one.

Sutton's second PLAYERS Championship title came in 2000 when Sutton, then nearing his 42nd birthday, went head-to-head against Tiger Woods. The two played together on Sunday but lightning halted play at the 12th hole with Sutton leading by three.

The two came back on Monday to finish the round, and Woods pulled to within a shot with an eagle at the 16th hole. Both men parred the final two holes and Sutton had the wire-to-wire victory -- 17 years after his first in the TOUR's signature event.

Sutton hasn't played competitively since he missed the cut at the 2006 Nissan Open. He played sparingly in 2005, as well, after captaining the 2004 U.S. Ryder Cup team, which suffered a nine-point loss at Oakland Hills.

A member of four Ryder Cup teams as a player, he also played on the victorious U.S. Presidents Cup team in 2000, compiling a 2-2 record. He was named the 1983 PGA of America and Golf Writers Association of America player of the year.

Sutton has been extremely active in a variety of charitable endeavors. He and fellow Louisiana natives David Toms and Kelly Gibson raised more than $2 million for the Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita relief effort.

In addition, Sutton was instrumental in raising the funds to open the Christus Schumpert Sutton Children's Hospital in Shreveport, La., in May 2006. He came up with the idea after his agent's 7-year-old daughter died of spinal meningitis.

Sutton won the 2007 Payne Stewart Award.