Boeing Classic

The Boeing Classic is a professional golf tournament on the Champions Tour, founded in 2005. The 54-hole event is played annually in late August in Snoqualmie, Washington, east of Seattle. The tournament was titled the "Boeing Greater Seattle Classic" for its first two years. Boeing is the main sponsor of the tournament.

It is held at the TPC Snoqualmie Ridge, a private course designed by Jack Nicklaus which opened for play in 1999. The course is 25 miles (40 km) east of Seattle at the foothills of the Cascade Range, and varies in elevation from 575 to 870 feet (175–265 m) above sea level, with the 18th green at 745 feet (227 m).

From 2007 to 2010, the tournament was played the week following the JELD-WEN Tradition, a senior major championship played in Sunriver, Oregon. For its first two years, the tournament immediately preceded The Tradition, which was then played at The Reserve near Portland. The Tradition moved to Alabama in 2011 and was played in early May.

The purse for the 2007 tournament was $1.6 million, with $240,000 going to the champion, Denis Watson, the winner of a playoff. The seven-man, sudden death playoff was the largest in tour history, with the seven finishing the 54 holes at 207, nine under par. The tournament concluded when Watson sunk an eagle putt on the second playoff hole, a second replay of the par-5 18th hole.

The purse for 2008 was $1.7 million, with $255,000 for first place. The par-72 course was set at 7183 yards (6568 m). Tom Kite shot a final round 66 to finish at 202, 14 under par, two strokes ahead of second round leader Scott Simpson . Kite was the only player in the field to break 70 in all three rounds and became the first repeat winner of the event. Kite won the tournament in 2006 in a one-hole playoff over Keith Fergus, and was the runner-up in 2005, finishing three strokes behind David Eger.

The 2009 tournament was held on August 28–30, 2009 with a $1.8 million purse ($270,000 for first place). Second-round co-leader Loren Roberts birdied the final two holes to steal the 2009 Boeing Classic title. Roberts took outlasted Mark O'Meara by nearly matching his sterling tee shot at 17 and dribbled in a 5-foot birdie putt. On No. 18, Roberts birdied the uphill final hole with a short pitch shot to 3 feet and dropped the putt for his third victory this season. Roberts shot a 7-under 65 in the final round and set a new tournament record at 18 under.

The 2010 U.S. Senior Open was held at Sahalee Country Club in nearby Sammamish, and won by Bernhard Langer with a final score of 272 (−8). The 2010 Boeing Classic was held four weeks after on August 27–29, 2010, also won by Langer by three strokes over Nick Price of Zimbabwe.

Read more about Boeing Classic:  Course Layout, Results

Famous quotes containing the word classic:

    That age will be rich indeed when those relics which we call Classics, and the still older and more than classic but even less known Scriptures of the nations, shall have still further accumulated, when the Vaticans shall be filled with Vedas and Zendavestas and Bibles, with Homers and Dantes and Shakespeares, and all the centuries to come shall have successively deposited their trophies in the forum of the world. By such a pile we may hope to scale heaven at last.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)