Published: November 04, 2009 01:42 am      

PGA Tour coming to Coast

From staff and special reports

BILOXI — The Champions Tour is coming to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2010.

The PGA and tournament sponsors unveiled plans for the 54-hole tournament Tuesday in Biloxi. It will be played April 30-May 2, 2010, at Fallen Oak Golf Club in Saucier. Fallen Oak is owned by the Beau Rivage Casino.

The tournament will be broadcast live on the Golf Channel.

The Champions Tour, known until 2002 as the Senior PGA Tour, is a professional tour for golfers aged 50 and over. The tour featured 26 tournaments from Hawaii to Florida this year, with international events in England and the Dominican Republic.

The week of the tournament will also feature two days of pro-ams and other charity events to benefit Habitat for Humanity.

Champions Tour golfers Loren Roberts and Hal Sutton attended Tuesday’s announcement at Beau Rivage.

A news release says the Gulf Coast Business Council leads a consortium of area businesses underwriting the event.

“The Gulf Coast Business Council has a vision of seeing the Mississippi Gulf Coast become a tier one tourism destination,” said Anthony Topazi, chairman of the Gulf Coast Business Council. “Achievement of such an ambitious goal requires that we have nationally recognized events and attractions. The PGA Champions Tour is a signature event for any region of this country.”

• The announcement comes on the heels of PGA Tour officials canceling the weather-stricken Viking Classic in Madison, Miss., over the weekend because of unplayable course conditions.

There will be no makeup date and players will move on to the final event of the season, the Children’s Miracle Network Classic on Nov. 12-15 in Florida.

Annandale Golf Club received 1.75 inches of rain overnight Friday and Saturday, completely soaking an already marginal course that had areas of standing water and large tracts of mud. Madison has received more than 20 inches of rain in six weeks. Officials postponed, then canceled play Thursday and Friday mornings after nearly constant rain. Slugger White, PGA Tour vice president for rules and competition, said commissioner Tim Finchem had asked the board for permission to play a 36-hole tournament as early as Monday but was unsuccessful.

It is the first time a tournament has been scrapped outright because of weather since the 1996 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. The last rainout came in Houston in 1991, though that event was rescheduled.