Web.com Tour Championship moving to Atlantic Beach C.C.

ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. – The PGA TOUR announced today that Atlantic Beach Country Club in Atlantic Beach, Florida has been named as host venue of the 2016 Web.com Tour Championship, set to be contested the week of October 3-9. Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida will serve as the main beneficiary of the event.
“We are delighted at the opportunity this partnership with Atlantic Beach Country Club and Wolfson Children’s Hospital presents for the Web.com Tour Championship and Northeast Florida. This will be a memorable fall week of golf and fun community activities for the residents of Atlantic Beach, the surrounding beaches and the city of Jacksonville. As important though, is the tournament’s naming of Wolfson Children’s Hospital as the primary beneficiary of its charitable proceeds. This will be a terrific national showcase of Wolfson’s passion to provide children cutting-edge medical care” said David L. Brown, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Web.com.
Atlantic Beach Country Club, which sits five blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, is steeped in PGA TOUR tradition, with a number of the game’s biggest stars competing in what would become the TOUR’s premier event.
As Selva Marina Country Club, which was founded in 1958, the club hosted the PGA TOUR’s Greater Jacksonville Open in 1965 and 1966, with the likes of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Sam Snead onsite to compete, and Nicklaus recording the only double-eagle of his TOUR career on the par-5 18th in the event’s 1966 edition.
The tournament would remain in the greater Jacksonville area in the ensuing years, eventually moving to TPC Sawgrass’ famed Stadium Course in 1982 with a new name – THE PLAYERS Championship.
In 2015, the site was redeveloped as Atlantic Beach Country Club with a masterful re-design under the watchful eye of noted architect Erik Larsen, who put forth a course that plays flawlessly through the native North Florida ecology. The overhaul saw the addition of a 16,000 square-foot clubhouse round out a full restoration of one of the area’s more historic locales.
“Atlantic Beach Country Club is ecstatic to host this year’s Web.com Tour Championship,” said Atlantic Beach Country Club President Josh Allen. “We are certain that our club will prove to be a fitting venue for the Tour’s season-ending event, and one that the next generation of PGA TOUR stars will remember well into their careers. With the event benefitting Wolfson Children’s Hospital, we are not only helping to impact our community, but we are also leaving a societal footprint that extends well beyond the golf course.”
A part of Baptist Health, Wolfson Children’s Hospital is recognized year after year as one of America's Best Children's Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, and stands alone as the only full-service tertiary hospital for children in the region, serving North Florida, South Georgia and beyond. The hospital provides care for all children, regardless of their ability to pay.
“We feel extremely fortunate – for years Wolfson Children’s has had great relationships with the PGA TOUR and Web.com – and now, these two exemplary organizations are multiplying their impact by working together to save more children’s lives. We are honored to be named as the major beneficiary of the Web.com Tour Championship and excited about what this will mean for the patients we serve,” said Michael D. Aubin, FACHE, president of Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
The PGA TOUR and its tournaments generated a record $160 million for charity in 2015, with three events on the Web.com Tour surpassing the $1 million mark in 2015 alone.
“We are excited to name Atlantic Beach Country Club as host of our Championship,” said Web.com Tour president Bill Calfee. “As the season-ending event, the Web.com Tour Championship takes on a special level of significance with the 25 PGA TOUR cards issued after the conclusion of play. The support and excitement from the members, Web.com and Wolfson Children’s Hospital has been fantastic, and we anticipate this being a wonderful week for golf fans in the area.”
The inaugural Web.com Tour Championship was contested in 1993 at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Oregon, with the event moving to a handful of different venues over the ensuing 22 years. The tournament was held at Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach from 2013 through 2015, but expansive 2016 construction on the entire TPC property forced Tour officials to look at other options for this year’s event.
Atlantic Beach Country Club, located in the heart of one of the region’s most thriving neighborhoods, put forth an impeccable opportunity to move the 2016 tournament to one of the most anticipated new venues in Northeast Florida. With the greater Jacksonville area – specifically the beaches region – serving as a home base for a number of PGA TOUR and Web.com Tour professionals, the course has quickly become a favorite stop amongst the game’s best players during their off weeks.
As the path to the PGA TOUR, the Web.com Tour awards 25 TOUR cards at the conclusion of the Regular Season, with another 25 cards awarded following the completion of the four-event, season-ending Web.com Tour Finals.
The Web.com Tour Finals open with the inaugural DAP Championship the week of September 5-11, and from there move to the Albertsons Boise Open presented by Kraft Nabisco (September 12-18) and the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship (September 19-25) before an off week leads into the Web.com Tour Championship. Each of the four events features a $1 million purse.
The Web.com Tour Championship has produced an impressive list of winners, including major champions David Duval (1993) and Stewart Cink (1996), as well as recent PGA TOUR winners Matt Every (2009), Chesson Hadley (2013) and Emiliano Grillo (2015).
Grillo, who defeated Chez Reavie in a dramatic playoff at last year’s Tour Championship, won the TOUR’s season-opening Frys.com Open just two weeks later. The native of Argentina was one of three players to go from the Web.com Tour Finals to the winner’s circle in the first four weeks of the 2015-16 TOUR season, joining the likes of Smylie Kaufman (Shriners Hospitals for Children Open) and Peter Malnati (Sanderson Farms Championship).