Competition: Daly, Els, Goosen committed to tee it up
Fan Experience: Publix Tailgate Village brings football, fun to fans
Community Impact: Boselli, Big Ben highlight Jags vs. Steelers Celebrity Challenge for Charity
Jacksonville, Florida, September 14, 2022 – The 2022 Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS presented by Circle K will feature a mix of competition, fan experience and community impact initiatives that will include winners of multiple major championships, an all-encompassing fan experience at Publix Tailgate Village, and a charity golf competition between gridiron greats from the Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers. These elements and more will be available for those in attendance at Timuquana Country Club as the top PGA TOUR Champions golfers compete for a $2 million purse on October 7-9, 2022.
COMPETITION: Multiple major championship winners John Daly, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen have committed to play in this year’s event.
Daly is a fan favorite known for his colorful attire and length off the tee. He counts the 1991 PGA Championship and 1995 Open Championship among his five PGA TOUR victories. Daly earned his only PGA TOUR Champions victory at the 2017 Insperity Invitational. Currently ranked 62nd in the Charles Schwab Cup standings, Daly’s best finish this season came in June with a T8 at the American Family Insurance Championship.
Els, who earned the nickname “The Big Easy” due to his imposing height and smooth swing, is a native of Johannesburg, South Africa. He has won 19 times on the PGA TOUR and 47 times internationally, including two U.S. Opens (1994,1997) and two Open Championships (2002, 2012). He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011. Els is a two-time winner on PGA TOUR Champions and currently sits 9th in the Charles Schwab Cup standings thanks to nine top-10 finishes this season. He finished T4 at last year’s Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS presented by Circle K.
Goosen also hails from South Africa and joined Els as a World Golf Hall of Fame member in 2019. Winner of the 2001 and 2004 U.S. Opens, Goosen has amassed seven PGA TOUR victories and 24 international wins during his career. Goosen earned his second career PGA TOUR Champions victory earlier this year at the Hoag Classic and is currently ranked 11th in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.
FAN EXPERIENCE: While October 3-9 will be a celebration of golf and the greater Jacksonville area, the Jaguars, Gators, Bulldogs and Seminole football teams will all be in action the same weekend as the tournament. All ticket holders can have the best of both worlds at Publix Tailgate Village, an open-air, shaded venue located to the left of the 17th hole with views of the 18th tee. Here, fans can enjoy a variety of food and cocktails, pick up tournament merchandise, take on some tailgate activities like corn hole and other games and watch two massive video boards that will broadcast football games all weekend.
The following food and beverage options will be available in Publix Tailgate Village:
Food: Dining options will range from meals spanning a variety of cuisine types to cool and tasty treats, all served by food truck purveyors and businesses that proudly serve the Jacksonville community.
Beverages: For fans looking for a cold beer or a cocktail, Publix Tailgate Village will be the perfect destination.
COMMUNITY IMPACT: Friday, October 7, is the first of three competition rounds for PGA TOUR Champions players. Following the featured groups, these legends of golf will share their turf with legends from the Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers as they compete in the Celebrity Challenge for Charity.
Tournament host Jim Furyk is a native of the Pittsburgh area, so it’s only fitting that this year’s Celebrity Challenge for Charity will feature two greats from his hometown team squaring off against two of the best to ever take the field in Furyk’s adopted hometown of Jacksonville. Recent Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Tony Boselli will captain the Jaguars twosome, while two-time Super Bowl winner Ben Roethlisberger will lead the Steelers twosome. The players joining Boselli and Roethlisberger on the course will be announced soon. The four greats will be mixed into the featured groupings to play the back nine during the opening round. Boselli and his fellow Jaguar will play for Blessings in a Backpack while Roethlisberger’s team will represent Beaches Habitat for Humanity. The celebrities will be in two-person team, scramble format, with a purse for each hole. In total, they will be competing for a $100,000 purse to be split in a variety of competitions.
QUOTES:
COMPETITION – “Ernie Els, John Daly and Retief Goosen are three of the most accomplished and respected golfers who play on PGA TOUR Champions,” said Jim Furyk. “If you take my swing, Ernie and Retief’s swings and Big John’s swing, it shows you how many different styles can be successful in golf. I know fans will be excited to come get an up-close view of how each of these players compete out on our Tour.”
FAN EXPERIENCE – “I’m a huge Ohio State Buckeyes fan, Jim grew up cheering on the Pittsburgh Steelers and now we both support the Jacksonville Jaguars,” said tournament co-host Tabitha Furyk. “We know this is football country, so we have created the best of both worlds by giving fans a place to enjoy the best golfers in the world without missing a touchdown from their favorite teams. Publix Tailgate Village will be a fan favorite again at this year’s tournament and a place I might have to visit quite often myself!”
ABOUT CONSTELLATION FURYK & FRIENDS PRESENTED BY CIRCLE K
The event will feature a 78-player field competing for a $2 million purse. The no-cut event will include Pro-Ams on Monday, October 3, Wednesday, October 5, and Thursday, October 6, followed by three rounds of tournament play October 7-9. In 2021, the tournament generated more than $1.17 million for local charities and looks to grow that number in the future. All three rounds of the Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS presented by Circle K will be broadcast live on Golf Channel, the exclusive cable provider of PGA TOUR Champions. More information on the event can be found online at www.ConstellationFurykAndFriends.com.
ABOUT THE JIM & TABITHA FURYK FOUNDATION
The Jim & Tabitha Furyk Foundation was created in 2010 to help children and families in need. This Jacksonville based non-profit partners with charities across North Florida to provide project specific funding and essential programing. The annual Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS presented by Circle K, created to raise charity dollars to support these partnerships, brings the community together to increase awareness and funding for programs that support education, healthcare, nutrition and safety for at risk children and families. Programs created from the support of the Jim & Tabitha Furyk Foundation in the Jacksonville Community include: Hope for the Holidays which packs over 5,000 bags filled with a holiday meal for at risk families, Operation Shower which provides car seats, strollers and baby essentials to active military families, Blessings in a Backpack, which feeds thousands of food insecure children each week of the school year and Childcare specialists and services to provide medically complex children care through Wolfson’s and Community PedsCare. The Jim & Tabitha Furyk Foundation is dedicated to bringing our community together to improve the lives of the children and families who live on the First Coast through all these programs and many more.
ABOUT CONSTELLATION
Constellation Energy Corporation (Nasdaq: CEG) is the nation’s largest producer of clean, carbon-free energy and a leading supplier of energy products and services to millions of homes, institutional customers, the public sector, community aggregations and businesses, including three fourths of Fortune 100 companies. A Fortune 200 company headquartered in Baltimore, our fleet of nuclear, hydro, wind and solar facilities have the generating capacity to power approximately 20 million homes, providing 10 percent of all carbon-free energy on the grid in the U.S. Our fleet is helping to accelerate the nation’s transition to clean energy with more than 32,400 megawatts of capacity and annual output that is nearly 90 percent carbon-free. We have set a goal to achieve 100 percent carbon-free power generation by 2040 by leveraging innovative technology and enhancing our diverse mix of hydro, wind and solar resources paired with the nation’s largest nuclear fleet. Follow Constellation on Twitter @ConstellationEG.