Countdown To Deutsche Bank Championship Begins On Monday

The official kickoff for the ninth-annual Deutsche Bank Championship golf tournament began on Monday with Media Day at in Norton.

Event activities begin on Tuesday, Aug. 30 with the actual tournament starting with the first round on Friday, Sept. 2.

The tournament hosts the top 100 players in the FedExCup playoff standings entering the holiday weekend and is the second of four stops in the PGA Tour playoff series. It is the only official PGA Tour event of the season that concludes on a Monday.

The championship features a record eight-million dollar purse, including a 1.44-million first-place prize. Since its inception in 2003, the tournament has generated close to 20 million dollars for the Tiger Woods Foundation and many New England-area charities.

“This is the ninth year,” said Deutsche Bank Americas CEO Seth Waugh. “It is hard to believe it’s been that long. I’m very proud of what we have built. We feel like we have become a New England tradition on Labor Day. We try to raise the bar every year. We always want it to be a special week. The competition is always extraordinary.”

Tournament week begins on Tuesday, Aug. 30 with the opening ceremony at 8 a.m. There will be a practice round for the professionals as well as the Deutsche Bank Red Sox Legends and Friends Pro-Am. It will also be Military Appreciation Day.

The next day, Wednesday, Aug. 31, will feature Community Wellness Day as well as another practice round for the PGA players. The pre-tournament activities will conclude on Thursday, Sept. 1 with the Championship Pro-Am.

The first round of the championship will commence on Friday, Sept. 2, which will also be National College Colors Day. The second round will take place on Saturday, Sept. 3 with the third round being held on Sunday, Sept. 4. The tournament will conclude with the fourth and final round on Monday, Sept. 5.

“The tournament is as strong as ever,” said Championship Director Eric Baldwin. “The golf course is in immaculate condition. It has been a phenomenal year of golf so far and there has been a tremendous list of champions. Our field this year will be very exciting. We are very excited about the championship that lies ahead.”

Charley Hoffman, 34, will head to Norton over the Labor Day weekend, looking to defend to his title following an exciting and record-setting finish in 2010.

He won his second PGA Tour event a year ago by making 11 birdies and recording a tournament-record and personal-best 9-under-par 62 in the final round on Labor Day. It was an impressive turnaround for Hoffman, who overcame a four-stroke deficit after three rounds to win by a record five strokes. In winning the event, he tied two tournament records. Hoffman tied the championship record with an overall score of 22-under 262. He also tied the tournament record for a score on the back nine, shooting a 6-under 29.

“It was just really special against that sort of field and the quality of golf course that I was able to pull away and close the way I did,” said Hoffman, via conference call from his home in Las Vegas. Hoffman was unable to make the trip to Norton on Monday after being hospitalized over the weekend with a stomach virus.

“It gave me a lot of confidence going into this year.  I haven’t played as well as I've liked but I had a second and hopefully will get on another run during the playoffs and have another chance during the Deutsche Bank. I'm excited to get back to Boston. You obviously feel good going back to a course you've played well on in the past, and what they've done in the redesign at TPC Boston is unbelievable from the first year I played until now. It's really transformed. It’s one of my favorite golf courses on Tour for sure.”

The win in Norton last summer helped Hoffman make an incredible jump up the playoff standings. He entered the holiday weekend in 59th place and left it having moved all the way up to second. He would end up finishing in fourth place in the final standings.

“It’s about as big as it can get for me,” said Hoffman of winning the tournament a year ago. “You're playing against the top 100 golfers of that year on the PGA Tour. The only way you can get into that tournament is the way you played that year, not off last year's top 50 in the world, not off anything else besides how you played this year.”

The Deutsche Bank Championship also received a boost when Tiger Woods announced last week that he would be returning to the PGA Tour this coming weekend at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio. If all goes well, Woods will then play in the PGA Championship, the final major of the season, from Aug. 11-14 in Duluth, Ga.

The Deutsche Bank Championship will then take place three weeks later.

“We hope to see Tiger here in the next several weeks,” said Baldwin. “I wouldn’t put a percentage on him playing here, but I would never count him out. From our prospective, he is one of the best players in the world. Tiger would definitely complete the field for us. It is always good to see him in the mix and I hope he plays well.”