Las Vegas, Nevada (October 14, 2010)–The boys are back in town is the marketing slogan for this year's Las Vegas PGA Tour tournament, the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. PGA Tour week in Las Vegas kicks off Sunday, October 17th, and runs through Sunday, October 24th, when a new champ, unless 2009 champ Martin Laird defends his Las Vegas title, will be crowned. Laird is back and heads a pretty solid field that includes a minimum of 10 winners on the PGA Tour in 2010 and several golfers with strong ties to Las Vegas golf courses. —By Brian Hurlburt.
Some of the notable PGA Tour players include Hunter Mahan, David Duval, John Daly, Davis Love III, Lee Jansen, and Stephen Ames, in addition to the golfers with strong ties to Las Vegas golf courses including UNLV graduate Charley Hoffman. He earned the biggest victory of his career by winning the second leg of the 2010 FedExCup, the Deutsche Bank Championship. Hoffman fired a PGA TOUR career low-round of 62 on Sunday to pick up the win. Hoffman finished fourth in the FedExCup standings and earned five top-tens for the season. Fellow UNLV graduate, Bill Lunde (1998/Economics) earned his first victory on the PGA TOUR at the 2010 Turning Stone Resort Championship. Unfortunately, 2010 Fed Ex Cup Champ and 3-time Las Vegas Champion Jim Furyk withdrew from the tournament.
The Las Vegas Golf Region is the home to more than 30 pros who have strong ties to Las Vegas golf courses, whether they live here, lived here for a long time, and/or played college golf at UNLV. The Las Vegas Golf Region is also home to many world-class golf courses including three Pete Dye Las Vegas golf courses at the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort. You can click now to view the official website of the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort where you can reserve your Las Vegas golf tee times or Las Vegas golf packages. The three are the only Pete Dye signature golf courses in Las Vegas. Other Las Vegas golfers joining Hoffman include fellow Rebels Chad Campbell, Chris Riley, and Bill Lunde.
And other pros with ties to Las Vegas scheduled to play include residents John Mallinger, Alex Cejka, Scott Piercy (whose wife gave birth during last years event), two time PGA TOUR winner, Nick Watney and roommates Rickie Fowler and Cameron Tringale. Fowler made his professional debut at the 2009 JTSHO, and is a candidate for PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year after two runner-up finishes and playing for the United States Ryder Cup team.
Campbell lost in a three-way playoff last year to Laird. No golfer with strong ties to Las Vegas has ever won the Las Vegas event, but many say it would be a dream come true to do so and would be as big as winning a major championship. Hoffman hosts a charity pro-am on Monday which will raise funds for the Charley Hoffman Foundation that will help its outreach efforts in Las Vegas. You can click now to view the official schedule of events surrounding the 2010 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. The total purse for the tournament is $4.2 million with a top prize of $774,000.