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Foursome of PGA Tour pros to play for $125,000 purse in full-field Arizona event next week
Sean M. Haffey
Star-studded foursomes have been in the news of late for two charity golf events later this month. But first, a quartet of slightly lesser-known PGA Tour pros will play for a pretty sizable purse.
The Scottsdale AZ Open won't be confused with the PGA Tour event that takes place at TPC Scottsdale every winter, but this year's field of 162 is getting a big boost with the addition of Kevin Streelman, Alex Cejka, Nate Lashley, and Joel Dahmen. Of the four, only Dahmen has yet to win on the PGA Tour.
“The biggest thing is we watched what the state of Arizona and what our governor was following for the golf courses and the entire time he has been recommending people get out to play golf. He listed golf as an essential business,” tournament director Ryan Pray told GolfChannel.com of the event's timing amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. “I felt with our dates we might be out of the [coronavirus] cloud. We might be able to make it work.”
Pray also told GolfChannel.com there will be no fans and no testing for COVID-19 at the event and that all competitors signed a special waiver to play. The PGA Tour has said it will have testing in place for a planned restart of the 2019-2020 season at next month's Charles Schwab Challenge.
The Scottsdale AZ Open, a 54-hole event at Talking Stick Golf Club beginning Monday, will feature a $125,000 purse, according to the tournament's website. The winner will walk away with a check for $20,000.
Those figures are paltry compared to PGA Tour events, but not compared to mini-tour events that have continued these past two months. Cejka, a man with $20 million in career earnings, recently won a total of $9,000 for two wins on the Outlaw Tour.
Golf fans are also looking forward to the return of some bigger names later in the month. Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson will play Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff in the TaylorMade Driving Relief event on May 17. And a team of Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning will take on Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in The Match: Champions for Charity on a May 24.