From staff reports • May 20, 2009 Two players who’ve experienced victory at En-Joie Golf Club are among the latest to commit to play
in the June 26-28 Dick’s Sporting Goods Open. World Golf Hall of Fame member Tom Kite and Craig Stadler are among the latest commitments to the $1.65 million Champions Tour event, along with Brad Bryant and D.A. Weibring. Kite’s 19 PGA Tour victories included the 1978 B.C. Open – a tournament in which he posted five top-10 finishes – and the 1992 U.S. Open. He represented the United States in seven Ryder Cup competitions, and captained the 1987 squad. The most recent of Kite’s 10 Champions Tour wins came in last year’s Boeing Classic in Snoqualmie, Wash. He played the inaugural Dick’s Open in 2007. Stadler, who tied for second place in the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf last month, holds major championship titles on the PGA Tour (1982 Masters) and Champions Tour (2004 JELD-WEN Tradition). In 2003, he became the first player to win on the regular tour and 50-and-over set when he topped the Ford Senior Players Championship and B.C. Open fields in consecutive weeks. Stadler has played in each of the first two Dick’s Open tournaments, sharing ninth place in 2007.
Citing present commitments to the tournament coupled with those he is confident are still to come, Dick’s Open tournament director John Karedes said, “We will have the greatest field to ever play competitive golf at En-Joie Golf Club.”