The PGA Tour Champions’ Furyk & Friends tournament is hitting the greens this weekend in Palm Coast, marking the 24th event out of 28 on the 2026 schedule, and man, it’s got some history with this spot. After a solid five-year run in Jacksonville, the tournament, hosted by Jim and Tabitha Furyk with Constellation as the main sponsor, has packed up and moved about an hour south to the Ocean Course at Hammock Beach Resort.
The Beautiful Course With a Cloudy Forecast
You gotta hand it to them, the Ocean Course is another one of those Florida coastal beauties that just screams big-league tournament. Even though they’re not in a bigger market like Jacksonville that pulled in fans from South Georgia, Palm Coast still keeps Duval in play and now brings more of Central Florida into the mix. Everything seems lined up, right? Well, almost. The one thing organizers can’t control? The weather. Reports are already hinting at possible schedule adjustments, so you better stay tuned. This agreement with Hammock Beach is set for two years, with an option for three more after that. If that “two years” sounds a little too familiar when you’re talking senior golf in this area, there’s a good reason.
Déjà Vu All Over Again, Or Is It?
Back in 1983-84, when the tour was called the Senior PGA Tour and was just getting its legs, they had a two-year run at Pelican Bay in Daytona Beach. The tour started in 1980 with four tournaments, then grew to 16 by ’83 and 22 the next year, eventually hitting a high of 40 events in 1996. The current schedule, with its mid-to-upper 20s number of tournaments, was a conscious choice. Tour officials wanted to stop competing with PGA Tour majors and bigger events, and also knew that streamlining would bring stronger sponsors and better fields. But sometimes, economic headwinds just totally wreck your day. The 2008 market calamity? That thing didn’t just ruin Bobby Ginn’s day, it completely wiped out his grand plans.
Ginn brought the Champions Tour (what it was called from 2003-15) to his brand-new Hammock Beach Ocean Course in 2007 and 2008. It was supposed to be a five-year stay. But the real estate bubble burst, taking Ginn and his dreams with it. That Hammock Beach tournament lasted just one year longer than Ginn’s other PGA Tour event, the Ginn sur Mer Classic, which came and went in 2008. Forty-plus years ago, senior golf rode a “new game in town” wave, perfectly timed with Arnold Palmer’s 50th birthday in 1980. Less than 20 years ago, it partnered with Ginn’s splashy real-estate dreams, even boasting an outsized prize purse. Then the financial world imploded, and tour officials probably felt like they should’ve never trusted a bubble.
So yeah, things are looking more solid for the tour these days, but you gotta wonder about that whole potential A.I. bubble thing that’s mentioned. Is history just waiting to repeat itself, or has the Champions Tour finally found its actual sweet spot for good? We’ll be watching how those Palm Coast greens hold up, and whether this two-year deal becomes a five-year success story for Furyk & Friends.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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