PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (Jan. 5, 2021) — Top PGA Professionals from around the U.S. will show their golf skills during the next six weeks at PGA Golf Club during the 57th PGA Winter Championships.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of when the PGA Winter Championships were moved to PGA Golf Club in 2000. The PGA Winter Championships began in 1954 at PGA National Golf Club in Dunedin, Fla., to provide additional playing opportunities for PGA Professionals.
The older PGA Professionals are first on the tee Wednesday with the first rounds of the Quarter Century Championship and Half Century Championship, where players must be members of the PGA of America for at least 25 years and 50 years, respectively. The 36-hole events will be played on the Wanamaker and Ryder courses.
Last year’s Quarter Century Champions were Omar Uresti (ages 50-64) of Austin, Texas and Jay Horton (65 and older). Uresti shot 2-under 142 and Horton won a playoff after finishing at 7-under 137. Tom Joyce of Huntington, N.Y. defended the Half Century Championship (1-over 145).
Other events in the PGA Winter Championships, with defending champions, are the PGA Senior Stroke Play Championship (Jan. 10-12, Frank Esposito and Micth Adams); the PGA Senior-Junior Team Championship (Jan. 18-21, Frank Bensel and Anthony Aruta); the PGA Four-Ball Stableford Team Championship (Jan. 31-Feb. 2, Ben Kern and Ben Cook); the Stroke Play Championship (Feb. 7-9, Jason Caron) and the Women’s Stroke Play Championship (Feb. 16-18, Lisa Grimes).
