Blog: Champions Tour primed for another big year

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Mike Stevens has been the Champions Tour President since 2008 after serving in several roles on the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour since 1997. Before joining the TOUR staff 14 years ago, Stevens spent 18 years on Hilton Head Island, S.C., and was the Tournament Director of the Heritage Classic. Stevens will periodically write blogs for PGATOUR.COM about the Champions Tour.

LAST YEAR WAS ... : 2010 was one of our most exciting seasons in recent memory. We had a great list of rookies come onto the scene and the caliber of competition across the board was exceptional. Fred Couples and Tom Watson kicked off the season strong with a great duel down the stretch in Hawaii and we did a pretty good job of carrying that momentum the entire year. On the competition side, nobody really ran away with any tournaments so that made for more exciting finishes. We had some of our players play events on the PGA TOUR and they had great success! This adds to the credibility of how good the players on the Champions Tour really are. Tom Lehman played well, Corey Pavin lost in a playoff at the Travelers and Fred played extremely well at the Masters. Also, Corey being named Ryder Cup captain brought us a healthy amount of publicity throughout the year.

Mike Stevens

Related links

2011 Schedule
Top 10 to watch in '11
Schwab Cup

THE ECONOMY: We weathered the troubled economy very, very well. We worked hard with our tournaments in 2008 and '09 to get them positioned well financially and they came out the other side stronger. As for new tournaments on the Champions Tour, we had a year that exceeded our expectations. The Montreal Championship was by far the best first-year event that we've ever had on our Tour with huge crowds and tremendous support. We had a tremendous event in Biloxi, Miss., -- the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic -- and were able to help provide some valuable charity dollars to Habitat For Humanity as they continue to do great post-Katrina work in the region.

Then we held the first PGA TOUR sanctioned event in South Korea with the Songdo Championship presented by Gale International. That was significant in so many ways. We have long known the importance of a presence in Asia and it was a big win to pull it off. Our players all bought into the idea and we were able to truly showcase our players and product on a global stage.

2011 WILL BE: We are hoping to carry the momentum from 2010 to '11. We have a great field this week in Hawaii, 42 of our best players are here. We have a good solid schedule for 2011. We are still working on an additional event in Asia, which will help further our global goals. We have a great crop of rookies coming up to challenge Bernhard Langer for the Charles Schwab Cup. Kenny Perry and Steve Lowery will get out there for their first full year, and Ian Baker-Finch, Brad Faxon, Mark Brooks and Steve Pate are just a few that will join the action in 2011 -- definitely another great rookie class that will add to our phenomenal tournament fields. Early indications from player commitments are that our fields will continue to be very strong week in and week out.

MAJOR CHANGES: We are extremely excited about the new venues for two of our majors: the JELD-WEN Tradition has been transformed into the Regions Tradition and will be played at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala., and the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship is moving from TPC Potomac to Westchester Country Club in New York. Both moves will hugely impact these events and we anticipate being able to generate significant charity dollars in each community, and the players are extremely excited to return to these two venues.

WHAT'S IN STORE: We hit a lot of home runs last year... it's going to be tough to duplicate but we'll try our hardest. My goal is to work hard to deliver a strong product to our fans and sponsors. Our players are committed to the Champions Tour and continue to do everything they can to deliver the best golf experience possible. We will continue to work with our tournaments to help them maintain their financial stability as we continue the recovery from the economy's impact. And we will work closely with our sponsors to deliver as much value to them as possible and to make their experience one of the best in all of sports. I'd be lying if I didn't say that it's been hard the last two years working through the economy but hopefully we are beginning the journey toward recovery ... and we'll be ready to take advantage of the opportunities that come our way.