The stars will be shining bright during the inaugural Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions presented by Insurance Office of America Jan. 17-20, at Tranquilo Golf Course at Fours Season Golf and Sports Club in Orlando, Fla.
LPGA tournament winners from the past two seasons – among them six of the top 12 and 14 of the top 25 money winners from 2018, will join a who’s who of major sports Hall of Famers, MVPs, All-Stars, active athletes as well as entertainers: actors, country music artists and comedians.
Hall of Famers Ray Allen, Brian Urlacher, Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, John Smoltz and Marcus Allen; seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens; Chicago Cubs pitcher Jon Lester; NFL stars Larry Fitzgerald and Patrick Peterson; former NASCAR champion Michael Waltrip; NHL star Jeremy Roenick; country artists Toby Keith, Lee Brice, Cole Swindell and Colt Ford; actors Alfonso Ribeiro and Jack Wagner; and comedian Larry the Cable Guy will be among the celebrities competing for a $500,000 purse in a modified Stableford format, which awards points as opposed to strokes.
Six of the top 12 LPGA money winners from 2018 will be challenging for $1.2 million in prize money in the LPGA’s no-cut, stroke play format, including No. 1 Ariya Jutanugarn, Brooke Henderson, Nasa Hataoka, Sei Young Kim, Lexi Thompson and Lydia Ko. Others from the top 25 are Brittany Lincicome, Shanshan Feng, Marina Alex, Danielle Kang and Angela Stanford, In Gee Chun, Moriya Jutanugarn and Georgia Hall. Other fan favorites include Stacy Lewis, Cristie Kerr, Nelly Korda, Pernilla Lindberg and Anna Nordqvist.
All four days of the tournament will be televised live, with Thursday and Friday on Golf Channel, and Saturday and Sunday on NBC network. Golf fans and television viewers will be treated to threesomes comprised of LPGA athletes and celebrities, or all LPGA players, or all celebrities. A full list of competitors can be found atDiamondLPGA.com.
Tranquilo Golf Course at Four Seasons Golf and Sports Club Orlando was built in 1992 and designed by Tom Fazio as Osprey Ridge, with Fazio enhancements for its October 2014 launch as Tranquilo Golf Club. The course is a par 71 and will play to 6,654 yards for all competitors.
Diamond Resort is offering two free tickets to active military, veterans, and first responders, active and retired police and fire and emergency medical personnel. Go online to DiamondLPGA.com and enter SALUTE 2019 at checkout.
The general public can also purchase tickets at DiamondLPGA.com. Prices range from $30 for a single day grounds pass to $60 for a four-day grounds pass.
Parking and shuttle service is complimentary with every ticket and available at the Magic Kingdom Parking Area at Walt Disney World® Resort.
The inaugural Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions will launch the LPGA 2019 Race to the CME Globe and the pro golf season in Florida while raising money for charity beneficiary University of Florida Health. Diamond Resorts-sponsored tournaments have raised over $3.1 million for charity since 2014.
For more information about the tournament, visit www.DiamondLPGA.com or follow Diamond Resorts on Twitter @DiamondResorts and #DiamondLPGA.