Days Hrs Min Sec
March 25–31, 2024
PGA TOUR Champions
Mission Hills Country Club

Press Releases

Posted: March 18, 2023

The Galleri® Classic Showcases a PGA TOUR Champions Field at Full Strength, Headlined by 10 World Golf Hall of Famers, Six Past World No. 1s and 20 Major Champions at Mission Hills Country Club

RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIF. – The majority of the field for The Galleri® Classic was finalized on Friday with 74-of-78 players set for the inaugural PGA TOUR Champions tournament, contested March 24-26 on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at storied Mission Hills Country Club. The Galleri Classic is a 54-hole, no-cut event and its first champion in tournament history will be awarded $330,000 from a $2.2 million purse.

The Galleri Classic, named after title sponsor GRAIL’s multi-cancer early detection test, brings PGA TOUR Champions golf back to the Coachella Valley for the first time since 1993.

“We are looking to tee off next week’s first edition of The Galleri Classic with a smash, and we have a major-like PGA TOUR Champions field to prove it on a major championship-caliber golf course,” said Michelle DeLancy, tournament director of The Galleri Classic. “Our field is stacked with worldwide golfing icons and the Tour’s leading golfers, personalities and storylines. You name the PGA TOUR Champions golfer you’d like to see, and we have him etching his name on the scorecard in the inaugural Galleri Classic.”

The first Galleri Classic could be the scene for a lasting legacy on the PGA TOUR Champions. Germany’s Bernhard Langer, a 45-time PGA TOUR Champions winner, the 1985 and 1993 Masters champion and the very first No. 1-ranked golfer (upon the 1986 introduction of the Official World Golf Ranking), may look to make history in surpassing Hale Irwin to become the circuit’s all-time winningest golfer with a triumph at The Galleri Classic.

Among those with Southern California ties set to play in The Galleri Classic include part-time Coachella Valley resident and 1992 Masters champion Fred Couples, past Mission Hills CC resident and 10-time PGA TOUR Champions winner John Cook, 1998 Masters and Open Championship winner Mark O’Meara, who first took up golf as a teenager residing in Mission Viejo, and Oxnard native and 1995 U.S. Open champion Corey Pavin.

Those receiving sponsor exemptions into The Galleri Classic are long-hitting fan favorite John Daly, major champion at the 1991 PGA Championship and 1995 Open Championship, Billy Andrade, the PGA TOUR’s 2022 Payne Stewart Award winner which annually recognizes a professional golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s values of character, charity and sportsmanship, Mario Tiziani, Matt Gogel and Dicky Pride.

Other leading PGA TOUR Champions golfers entered into The Galleri Classic include:

  • Padraig Harrington, who won four tournaments in his 2022 PGA TOUR Champions debut season and was announced last week as part of the World Golf Hall of Fame’s 2024 induction class.
  • Steve Stricker, a four-time senior major champion who has won four of his 12 PGA TOUR Champions titles in his last seven starts.
  • Steven Alker, the PGA TOUR Champions‘ 2022 Player of the Year.
  • Miguel Angel Jimenez, who holds 13 PGA TOUR Champions titles and two senior major wins.
  • Jim Furyk, the 2003 U.S. Open champion who owns three PGA TOUR Champions titles and one senior major.

By the numbers, The Galleri Classic field features:

  • Ten World Golf Hall of Famers – Bernhard Langer (Class of 2002), Vijay Singh (Class of 2006), Jose Maria Olazabal (Class of 2009), Ernie Els (Class of 2011), Sandy Lyle (Class of 2012), Fred Couples (Class of 2013), Colin Montgomerie (Class of 2013), Mark O’Meara (Class of 2015), Retief Goosen (Class of 2019) and Padraig Harrington (to be inducted among the Class of 2024).
  • Six of the 25 World No. 1-ranked golfers (since the Official World Golf Ranking was introduced in 1986) in the sport’s history – Bernhard Langer, Fred Couples, Tom Lehman, Ernie Els, David Duval and, most recently, 34-time PGA TOUR winner and three-time major champion Vijay Singh.
  • Twenty major champions. The following 10 golfers have won major titles on the PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions:
  • Bernhard Langer (1985 and 1993 Masters; 11 senior majors)
  • Tom Lehman (1996 Open Championship; three senior majors)
  • Fred Couples (1992 Masters; two senior majors)
  • Vijay Singh (2000 Masters, 1998 and 2004 PGA Championship; one senior major)
  • Padraig Harrington (2007 and 2008 Open Championship, 2008 PGA Championship; one senior major)
  • Retief Goosen (2001 and 2004 U.S. Open; one senior major)
  • Mark O’Meara (1998 Masters and 1998 Open Championship; one senior major)
  • Darren Clarke (2011 Open Championship; one senior major)
  • Jim Furyk (2003 U.S. Open; one senior major)
  • David Toms (2001 PGA Championship; one senior major)

Other major champions (without a senior major): John Daly, David Duval, Ernie Els, Lee Janzen, Sandy Lyle, Jose Maria Olazabal, Corey Pavin, Jeff Sluman, Mike Weir and Y.E. Yang.

Daily ticket options for The Galleri Classic, including official Pro-Am rounds on Wednesday and Thursday (March 22-23) and three rounds of competition from March 24-26, are on sale at the tournament’s website, www.thegallericlassic.com.

 

2023 The Galleri Classic Final Field (74 of 78 players) as of March 17, 2023

Alker, Steven

Allen, Michael

Allenby, Robert

Ames, Stephen

Andrade, Billy +

Appleby, Stuart

Austin, Woody

Barron, Doug

Bertsch, Shane

Broadhurst, Paul

Cejka, Alex

Choi, K.J.

Clarke, Darren

Cook, John

Cooper, Brian

Couples, Fred

Daly, John +

Dawson, Marco

DiMarco, Chris

Duke, Ken

Durant, Joe

Duval, David

Els, Ernie

Estes, Bob

Flesch, Steve

Funk, Fred

Furyk, Jim

Gay, Brian

Gogel, Matt +

Goosen, Retief

Goydos, Paul

Green, Richard

Haas, Jay

Harrington, Padraig

Herron, Tim

Huston, John

Jaidee, Thongchai

Janzen, Lee

Jiménez, Miguel Angel

Jobe, Brandt

Karlsson, Robert

Kelly, Jerry

Labritz, Rob

Langer, Bernhard

Lehman, Tom

Lyle, Sandy

Maggert, Jeff

Mayfair, Billy

McCarron, Scott

McKenzie, David

Mediate, Rocco

Montgomerie, Colin

O’Meara, Mark

O’Neal, Timothy

Olazábal, José María

Pampling, Rod

Parel, Scott

Pavin, Corey

Pernice Jr., Tom

Petrovic, Tim

Pride, Dicky +

Quigley, Brett

Senden, John

Short, Jr., Wes

Singh, Vijay

Sluman, Jeff

Stricker, Steve

Sutherland, Kevin

Tiziani, Mario +

Toms, David

Triplett, Kirk

Verplank, Scott

Weir, Mike

Yang, Y.E.

3 Tuesday qualifiers (TBD)

+ Sponsor Exemption

 

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