Schwab Cup re-ups with SGC for one more year

The PGA Champions Tour has renewed its contract with Sonoma Golf  Club to host next year’s 2009 Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
Champions Tour officials had originally planned for this year’s event to be their final trip to Sonoma Golf Club before moving on to Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco, but the scheduling of the 2009 President’s Cup at Harding Park allowed the Champions Tour to sign on once again to finish their season in Sonoma next year.
“The fans in Sonoma are great and the people here are wonderful,” said Leon Gilmore, executive director of the event, which starts this year on Oct. 30.  “We’ve learned as a tournament how to bring opportunities to Sonoma, along with the charities and nonprofits of Sonoma.”
In the five years the tournament has been at Sonoma Golf Club, it has raised approximately $1.4 million for local charities and nonprofits. Gilmore said that he expects upwards of $400,000 to be handed out this year.
The tournament first came to Sonoma in 2003, when the Champions Tour and the Sonoma Golf Club signed a four-year agreement that was renewed in 2006. The tournament will officially move to Harding Park starting in 2010.