Columnist Peter Benton: 50 events in 2000 highlight PGA Tour

Peter Benton

Thursday, Sept. 2, 1999 | 10:27 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

The PGA Tour schedule of official events for the year 2000 features 50 tournaments, including three $5 million World Golf Championships and the staging of the fourth Presidents Cup.

As it did this year, next year's Tour schedule begins Jan. 3 with the Mercedes Championship, featuring the season's tournament winners; followed Jan. 10-16 by the Sony Open in Hawaii.

The domestic portion of the schedule, which includes five weeks where two PGA events will be played concurrently, concludes with the Tour Championship and the Southern Farm Bureau Classic the week of Oct. 30-Nov. 5. The Tour Championship, which will be played for the second time at Atlanta's East Lake Golf Club, is limited to the top 30 PGA Tour members on the official money list.

The "official money" season concludes with the American Express Championship. Players in this event will come from the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking, the top 30 from the PGA Tour money list, the top 20 from the PGA European Tour Volvo Ranking and the top three each from the Australian Tour Order of Merit, Japan PGA Tour money list and Southern Africa PGA Tour Order of Merit.

Final prize money distribution will be based on the number of players in the field. But as with the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship and the NEC Invitational (the other two $5 million tournaments), the first prize of $1 million and last-place prize of $25,000 will not change.

The Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship, featuring the top 64 available players from the Official World Golf Ranking, will be played Feb. 21-27 at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. The NEC Invitational, with players from the last-named Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup teams, will be held Aug. 21-27 at the same site as last week's event, the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.

* MASTER OF GOLF'S DOMAIN: MasterCard sponsors season-long Charity Team Competitions on the PGA and Senior PGA Tours.

Four-member teams are selected by participating tour events, while three-man teams are chosen by the Senior Tour tournaments.

Total official money won by each team's players determines the event's place in the standings. Participating tournaments receive funds for charity distribution at the conclusion of the season, with $100,000 going to the winning teams' selected charities.

As of Aug. 22, the Las Vegas Senior Classic's trio of Bruce Fleisher, Jim Thorpe and Victor Regalado were the leading Senior PGA Tour Charity team with a total of $2,318,735.

The Las Vegas Invitational's team of Mark O'Meara, Phil Tataurangi, Jay Don Blake and Jeff Gallagher are in 32nd place in the 35-team field.