Punta Cana, Dominican Republic– The second annual Cap Cana Championship begins play Friday at the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course at Punta Espada Golf Club in Cap Cana, Dominican Republic.
Tournament officials announced that Greg Norman has committed to play in his first regular season Champions Tour events. The 54-year-old Australian is a winner of 91 titles worldwide, including 20 PGA TOUR titles. Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001, Norman is a two-time British Open champion who spent 331 weeks as the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world during the 1990s. Norman will make his first appearance at The Cap Cana Championship and sixth career start on the Champions Tour. He finished T6, T5 and fourth respectively, in his last appearances on the 50+ circuit at the 2008 Senior PGA Championship, Senior British Open and U.S. Senior Open.
“I very much look forward to playing in The Cap Cana Championship in the Dominican Republic, my first non-major on the Champions Tour,” Said Norman “Over the years I have enjoyed the time spent in the Dominican Republic and I look forward to continuing both my personal and professional interests there.”
Norman joins an already stellar field which includes fellow World Golf Hall of Fame members Hale Irwin, Bernhard Langer, Larry Nelson, Nick Price, Gary Player and Curtis Strange. Also returning will be defending champion Mark Wiebe, who cruised to a four-stroke, wire-to-wire victory over Vicente Fernandez at last year’s Cap Cana Championship, the first-ever Tour-sanctioned event to be held in the Dominican Republic.
The 54-hole stroke-play, Cap Cana Championship will feature a 78-player field and official prize money of $2.1 million, with the winner collecting $315,000. GOLF CHANNEL will broadcast all three rounds in the United States and coverage of the event will be distributed internationally.
Punta Espada Golf Club, the first of three Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Courses to open in Cap Cana, opened for play in November 2006, and only a few months later appeared in international Top-100 lists. It is now ranked by Golfweek as the No. 1 course in the Caribbean and Mexico. The par-72 course incorporates the surrounding natural beauty of Cap Cana, stretching along a coastline where golfers on each hole look out into the blue expanse of the Caribbean Sea.
The Cap Cana Championship is part of the Champions Tour’s “The Road to the Charles Schwab Cup”, a season-long points race that kicks off in Hawaii with 25 official events and culminates in Northern California at Sonoma Golf Club October 26 – November 1, with $2.1 million in payouts awarded to the season’s top five leading performers.
About Cap Cana
Located on the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic, just seven minutes away from the Punta Cana International Airport, Cap Cana is an exclusive, luxurious tourism and real estate community known for its ambitious dimensions, impeccable array of services and amenities and incomparable architectural design that blends perfectly with its surrounding beauty.
Currently, Cap Cana is home to the Punta Espada Golf Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus and operated by Troon Golf; headquarters to the PGA Tours Champion’s Tour since 2008 and listed by Golfweek as the number one course in the Caribbean and Mexico. Its second golf course, “Las Iguanas” is 70% complete, and is due to open by the end this year. Cap Cana’s Marina is fully operational, and has boat slips available for yachts up to 150 feet, surrounded by elegant shops and gourmet restaurants. Cap Cana also offers world class spas, exclusive memberships to exquisite clubs, a wide variety of activities and amenities, and an educational district which includes the leading bilingual Cap Cana Heritage School.
Cap Cana is rich with five star accommodations available for its visitors – including the Sanctuary Cap Cana Golf & Spa hotel with 176 suites, a luxurious boutique hotel, world renowned Caleton Villas, as well as hundreds of condominium units and villas already finished and available to rent. The infrastructure of basic services at Cap Cana presently has 20MW of installed power, nearly 30 miles of paved roads, and 13 miles more in the process of completion. Cap Cana’s property is also equipped with modern water, irrigation, and sanitation grids, along with a cutting edge telecommunications network. Please visit www.capcana.com for more information.
About Dominican Republic Ministry of Tourism
The Dominican Republic’s first tourist was Christopher Columbus in 1492. Rich in history, the DR has developed into a diverse destination offering both Dominican and European flavors to more than one million U.S. visitors each year. Named #1 Golf Destination in Caribbean & Latin America by the International Association of Golf Tour Operators, the DR boasts 25 designer golf courses, upscale resorts, pristine nature, and sophisticated cities and quaint villages filled with warm Dominican people. The DR features the best beaches, fascinating history and culture, and is a chosen escape for celebrities, couples and families alike. Visit the Dominican Republic Ministry of Tourism’s official Web site at: www.GoDominicanRepublic.com or call 1-888-374-6361 for more information.
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