2013-2014 Golf: Preview And TV Schedule for The McGladrey Classic

Tommy “Two-Gloves” Gainey leads a good field of PGA Tour players into Sea Island, Georgia for this weeks McGladrey Classic. There have been some changes made to this tournament since Gainey won here last year as part of the old Fall Series. Promoters have added $1.5 Million dollars to the purse, bringing it up to a $5.5 million dollar total. The event, which is hosted by Davis Love III now has full FedEx Cup points, and the winner gets an invitation to Augusta in April. The tournament winner will pocket $720,000 dollars.

The Sea Island Golf Course is a 7005 yard, par 70 layout which is located on the Southern tip of St. Simons Island. The original 9-hole course was commissioned in 1929, and was designed by English course architects Harry Colt and Charles Alison. Bobby Jones once deemed this seaside golf course as one of the best nine holes of golf he had ever encountered.

Another nine-hole golf course was built in 1973, and famed course designer, Tom Fazio was commissioned in 1999 to bring the two courses together into one 18 hole championship layout.

2012 McGladrey Champion, Tommy Gainey shot a 10 under par 60 in the final round to both, win the tournament, and set the 18 hole record. He also set a Tournament record score of 264.

Although the field is mediocre at best, with the tournament coming on the heels of the WGC-HSBC Champions last week in China, and other top European players involved in the Race To Dubai events, The McGladrey will field 16 previous major champions as well as nine winners on the PGA Tour during the 2013 season. Webb Simpson will be in the field, and not only is he a former major champion, he has a win already in 2014 at the Shriners a few weeks back.

Some of the early pairings that you can keep an eye on are tournament host and local resident, Davis Love III, Matt Kuchar, and Harris English. Love will be making his 681st start on the PGA Tour, and he finished T4 here last year.

2007 Masters Champ, Zach Johnson will play with 2011 US Open Champ, Webb Simpson, and 2012 Colonial Champ, Boo Weekly. Weekly played at the WGC-HSBC Champions last week, and finished in a tie for 11th place.

The Golf Channel will broadcast the McGladrey Classic daily starting Thursday from 1 to 4 PM Eastern Time.

Source: PGATour.com

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