Columnist Peter Benton: Western swing gains sponsor

Peter Benton

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2001 | 10:32 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

It was recently announced by the PGA Tour that The St. Paul, a company headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., is now the presenting sponsor of the PGA Tour's 2001 West Coast swing.

"The PGA Tour West Coast swing presented by The St. Paul" encompasses the first nine tournaments of the 2001 season held in January and February. It began with last week's World Golf Championship -- Match Play Championship in Melbourne, Australia -- and will conclude with the Nissan Open in Los Angeles.

The sponsorship provides $300,000 purse enhancements for each tournament, excluding last week's match-play championship, and includes a $1 million "King of Swing" bonus pool to be divided by the top three West Coast performers, as determined by a points system. The winner will receive $500,000, followed by $300,000 for second and $200,000 for third.

Points are distributed to the top eight players each week with 100 points awarded for a victory down to 10 points for an eighth-place finish.

Tiger Woods has won the last two PGA Tour West Coast Swing titles, while Phil Mickelson won the inaugural title in 1998.

"We are excited about the support The St. Paul has brought to the West Coast swing program," said PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem. "Their support of the PGA Tour through its presenting sponsorship of the West Coast swing will help make our early season events even more attractive to not only our players, but also tournament organizations and fans."

More than 125 events are being contested on the three tours in 2001, for more than $220 million in prize money. In addition to providing competitive opportunities for its membership, tour events also generate significant sums of money for charity and have raised approximately $525 million for charity since 1938, the first year such records were kept.