RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIF. – The cause for celebration among Galleri Classic patrons not only stems from the PGA TOUR Champions’ leading golfer planning to compete against the world’s best 50-and-over professionals for the 2024 tournament championship. He is also teaming up with the event to champion a greater cause in the Coachella Valley.
2023 PGA TOUR Champions Player of the Year and 17-time PGA TOUR Champions winner Steve Stricker has made an early commitment to return to the desert to play in the second edition of the Galleri Classic, taking place March 25-31 on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at the iconic Mission Hills Country Club.
The Galleri Classic, named after title sponsor GRAIL’s multi-cancer early detection test, will feature 78 PGA TOUR Champions professionals – including World Golf Hall of Fame members – playing 54 holes (three rounds) of stroke play for a $2.2 million purse.
Stricker will serve as ambassador for Galleri, helping to raise awareness of multi-cancer early detection, along with 2000 World Golf Hall of Fame and 1999 LPGA Hall of Fame inductee Juli Inkster, a returning ambassador.
Stricker, a 12-time PGA TOUR winner, carded a 10-under-par 206 to finish in a tie for fifth place in last year’s Galleri Classic – six strokes back of inaugural tournament champion David Toms. Toms is expected to return to Mission Hills to defend his title in 2024 against a major championship-worthy field.
A 13-time PGA TOUR champion and winner of the 2001 PGA Championship and the 2018 U.S. Senior Open, Toms led wire-to-wire and made birdies on six of his last 10 holes en route to winning the Galleri Classic with an overall score of 16-under-par 200 (65-70-65). It is the most recent of Toms’ four PGA TOUR Champions titles, as he became the circuit’s first two-time event winner in 2023.
“Steve Stricker’s 2023 achievements raised the bar on PGA TOUR Champions, and The Galleri Classic is thrilled to have Steve back inside the ropes and as a GRAIL ambassador as our title sponsor seeks to elevate our tournament to new heights,” said Michelle DeLancy, tournament director of The Galleri Classic. “Between having the playing commitments of the 2023 PGA TOUR Champions Player of the Year and our inaugural 2023 champion, we are already off to a stellar start in the construction of our 2024 field.”
Based on his 2023 performance, Stricker must be considered the PGA TOUR Champions’ best golfer at present. In 16 starts, he won six titles – the most by any golfer in a season since 2017 — and placed runner-up five times for a total of 11 top-2 finishes (68.7% of his starts). He did not finish out of the top eight in any of his first 15 events.
The Wisconsin native set the PGA TOUR Champions’ single-season records for scoring average (67.54) and prize money earned ($3,986,063) and won the circuit’s Charles Schwab Cup for the first time in 2023, sitting atop its points standings for 25 of the 28 weeks during the season.
Last year, Stricker joined World Golf Hall of Fame members Gary Player (1988), Jack Nicklaus (1991) and Langer (2017) as the only players to win three PGA TOUR Champions majors in a season. He won the Regions Tradition and KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in May and July’s Kaulig Companies Championship – in running his senior major title tally to seven. In his other major start of 2023, he finished runner-up at the U.S. Senior Open.
Stricker’s 26.6-percent career win percentage on PGA TOUR Champions (17 titles in 64 starts) is the best mark in the TOUR’s history among those with at least 10 victories.
In celebration of The Galleri Classic’s final round occurring on Easter Sunday (March 31), the event will host an Easter Celebration which will include an Easter morning service and an Easter egg hunt for children in kicking off its Championship Sunday.
In 2024, The Galleri Classic will continue its partnership with six cancer-related, non-profit organizations based in the Coachella Valley – American Cancer Society/Palm Desert, The Desert Cancer Foundation, Eisenhower Health, Hanson House, Pendleton Foundation and Shay’s Warriors Life After Cancer – and will direct a portion of its proceeds from the event to fund these local charities.
The Galleri Classic’s fans play a part in supporting the tournament’s off-course charitable endeavor when securing tickets online only at www.TheGalleriClassic.com. Ticket offerings (March 27-31) feature daily and weekly grounds tickets for $30 and $65, respectively, and clubhouse tickets (good only March 29-31) for $75 per day or $150 for all three competition rounds.
The Champions Club on 18 provides The Galleri Classic’s most sophisticated spectator experience. Day-specific Champions Club tickets (good only during competition rounds March 29-31) can be secured for $350 per day, or Weekly Champions Club tickets (good March 29-31) are available for $1,050.
Limited availability remains for spots in The Galleri Classic’s official Pro-Am on March 27-28 (Wednesday and Thursday of tournament week). The Galleri Classic Pro-Am provides an unmatched opportunity for golf enthusiasts to go inside the ropes for a fantasy-like, bucket-list experience of playing on Mission Hills CC’s Dinah Shore Tournament Course while rubbing elbows with legends of the game. Amateurs interested in playing in the Pro-Am can seek more information and register at www.TheGalleriClassic.com/pro-am.
The Galleri Classic invites those 18 and older who are interested in a behind-the-scenes experience of how a professional golf tournament operates during tournament week (March 25-31) to join its invaluable team of more than 500 volunteers. Those interested in volunteering can learn more about each committee and submit a form of inquiry towards registration at www.TheGalleriClassic.com/volunteers.
Stay updated on The Galleri Classic at www.TheGalleriClassic.com and by following the event on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gallericlassic), Instagram (@GalleriClassic) and Twitter (@GalleriClassic).
About GRAIL
GRAIL is a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured. GRAIL is focused on alleviating the global burden of cancer by developing pioneering technology to detect and identify multiple deadly cancer types early. The company is using the power of next-generation sequencing, population-scale clinical studies, and state-of-the-art computer science and data science to enhance the scientific understanding of cancer biology, and to develop its multi-cancer early detection blood test. GRAIL is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA with locations in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, and the United Kingdom. GRAIL, LLC, is a subsidiary of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) currently held separate from Illumina Inc. under the terms of the Interim Measures Order of the European Commission.
For more information, visit grail.com.
About Galleri®
The Galleri multi-cancer early detection test can detect a signal shared by more than 50 types of cancer, as defined by the American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging Manual, through a routine blood draw. When a cancer signal is detected, the Galleri test predicts the cancer signal origin, or the tissue or organ associated with the cancer signal, with high accuracy to help guide the next steps to diagnosis. The Galleri test requires a prescription from a licensed health care provider and should be used in addition to recommended cancer screenings such as mammography, colonoscopy, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, or cervical cancer screening. It is recommended for use in adults with an elevated risk for cancer, such as those aged 50 or older.
For more information about Galleri, visit galleri.com.
About PGA TOUR Champions
PGA TOUR Champions is a membership organization of professional golfers age 50 and older, including 35 members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. The Tour’s mission 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 and generate significant charitable and economic impact in tournament communities. Follow PGA TOUR Champions online at PGATOUR.com, on Facebook, on Twitter (@ChampionsTour), on Instagram (@pgatourchampions) and on TikTok (pgatourchampions).
All events are televised in the United States on Golf Channel, the exclusive cable-television partner of PGA TOUR Champions. Internationally, PGA TOUR Champions coverage is available in more than 170 countries and territories via 22 media partners.
