Unique Golf Format features PGA TOUR Champions, Sports and Entertainment Celebrities
ORLANDO, FL / ACCESSWIRE / December 22, 2016 / Military and first responders will be presented with complimentary admission* to the Diamond Resorts Invitational benefiting Florida Hospital for Children, now a PGA TOUR Champions Challenge Season Event, and second annual golf tournament at Tranquilo Golf Club at Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort, FL, January 13-15, 2017.
Diamond Resorts International®, owner and creator of the event, will provide two complimentary 3-day grounds passes to the January 10-15 tournament for all active and retired military. The same offer is extended to active and retired police, fire and emergency medical technician (EMT) personnel. This offer is only valid with online registration at DiamondResortsInvitational.com.
All service men and women and first responders can enter the promo code "SALUTE2017" on the website to locate the designated registration page. The ticket voucher (printed out at home or reserved for pickup at the event) will need to be exchanged at the onsite will call/ticket station before entering the event. Participants must show photo ID and official military or first responder identification to receive their complimentary admission.
The tournament will feature up to 30 PGA TOUR Champions players and up to 50 top-tier sports and entertainment celebrities in two distinct competitions, utilizing a Modified Stableford scoring format which awards points as opposed to strokes – similar to the PGA TOUR's Barracuda Championship.
The Diamond Resorts Invitational is a competition for celebrity golfers in a professional tournament format over three days and 54 holes. Celebrity commitments thus far for the 2017 event include Marcus Allen, Roger Clemens, Josh Donaldson, Colt Ford, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Brian McCann, Kevin Millar, Mark Mulder, Blair O'Neal, Jake Owen, Alfonso Ribeiro, Jeremy Roenick, Mark Rypien, John Smoltz, Brian Urlacher, Justin Verlander, Larry the Cable Guy and defending champion Mardy Fish.
Retired United States Army Corporal Chad Pfeifer, an Iraqi War Veteran and amputee whose golf-centered rehabilitation has turned him into a top-tier tournament player, will join the field of 48 sports and entertainment celebrities. While serving in Iraq in 2007, Pfeifer's life changed when a bomb exploded under the patrol vehicle he was driving and he lost his left leg above the knee. A three-time winner of the George W. Bush Presidential Center's Warrior Open and the 2011 National Amputee Tournament champion, the 34-year-old Pfeifer is a Diamond Resorts International® Ambassador and continues to follow his dream, currently working as a PGA Club Professional in Texas.
PGA TOUR Champions players will compete for $750,000 over the 54-hole tournament, while the celebrities will play for a $500,000 purse. Threesomes will include one Champions Tour professional and two celebrities.
Tournament week will begin Thursday, January 12 with the fourth-annual Brian Gay Pro-Am presented by Diamond Resorts International®. Gay, a four-time PGA TOUR winner and longtime Orlando resident, will serve as host of the 18-hole celebrity-amateur competition, which will feature foursomes comprised of three amateurs and one celebrity or PGA TOUR Champions player. An evening gala and headliner concert at Mystic Dunes Resort and Golf Club, a Diamond Resorts flagship resort in Orlando, will complement the day's events.
The Champions Gala is a highlight of the event with its gourmet dinner and headliner concerts that have featured Huey Lewis and the News, Darius Rucker, Colt Ford and Jake Owen. The accompanying live and silent auctions have raised more than $1.7 million for Florida Hospital for Children the past three years.
The tournament site, Tranquilo Golf Club at Four Seasons Orlando is unique to Central Florida for its varying elevation, abundant wildlife and protected wetlands. Originally built in 1992 and designed by Tom Fazio as Osprey Ridge, Fazio enhanced the Orlando golf course for its October 2014 launch as Tranquilo Golf Club at Four Seasons Resort Orlando. The course is a par 71 and plays to 6,901 yards.
All three rounds will be televised live by the Golf Channel culminating with the final round on Sunday, Jan. 15.
The Diamond Resorts Invitational is also conducting a Golf Sweepstakes awarding a winner a five day/four night vacation for four to Orlando including accommodations at Mystic Dunes Resort & Golf Club and the opportunity to play with PGA Champions Pro, John Cook. To enter visit DiamondResorts.com/golf-sweepstakes.
For more information about the tournament, visit DiamondResortsInvitational.com
*Tickets will be available to the first 1,000 entrants.
About Diamond Resorts International®:
Diamond Resorts International, with its network of more than 370 vacation destinations located in 35 countries throughout the continental United States, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa, provides guests with choice and flexibility to let them create their dream vacation, whether traveling an hour away or around the world. Our relaxing vacations have the power to give guests an increased sense of happiness and satisfaction in their lives, while feeling healthier and more fulfilled in their relationships by enjoying memorable and meaningful experiences that let them "Stay Vacationed.™"
Diamond Resorts International® manages vacation ownership resorts and sells vacation ownership points that provide members and owners with Vacations for Life® at over 370 managed and affiliated properties and cruise itineraries.
About Florida Hospital for Children:
Florida Hospital for Children is a seven-story, 201-bed state-of-the-art facility designed with the help of Walt Disney Imagineers, families and clinicians. Our team of over 135 highly skilled pediatric specialists delivers extraordinary care across more than 35 pediatric subspecialties, including a Children's Emergency Department, the Level IV Comprehensive Pediatric Epilepsy Center, a world-renowned Pediatric Heart Center and our Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). With more than 23 pediatric specialty surgeons performing complex operations in a safe and child friendly environment, Florida Hospital for Children is a destination for health and healing. Learn more at www.FloridaHospitalforChildren.com.
About PGA TOUR Champions:
PGA TOUR Champions is a membership organization of golfers age 50 and older, with the most recognizable and accomplished players in the game - including 34 members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, which compete regularly in its events. PGA TOUR Champions is where Legends play, and is home to The Ultimate Clubhouse. Conceived in 1980 as the Senior PGA Tour, it started with just four events and purses totaling $475,000. The primary purpose of PGA TOUR Champions is to provide financial opportunities for its players, entertain and inspire its fans, deliver substantial value to its partners, create outlets for volunteers to give back, protect the integrity of the game and generate significant charitable and economic impact in communities in which it plays. In 2016, the newly-introduced Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs will identify and recognize the Tour's leading player via a season-long race for the Charles Schwab Cup. The Commissioner of the PGA TOUR is Tim Finchem. Greg McLaughlin is President of PGA TOUR Champions. The PGA TOUR's website is pgatour.com, the No. 1 site in golf, and the organization is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Follow PGA TOUR Champions at facebook.com/PGATOURChampions and on Twitter @ChampionsTour.
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Contact Information:
Steve Griffith
Vizion Group
484/433-7757 (East Coast)
Phil Weidinger
Weidinger Public Relations
775/588-2412 (West Coast)
SOURCE: Diamond Resorts International