If there's anything many professional athletes have in common it's golf. The schedule of a professional athlete includes a lot of downtime and it is not surprising many take up golf. Some have reached a point where they even try to turn it into a second career. Jerry Rice took his chances on the Nationwide Tour and Tony Romo has considered trying to become a professional golfer.
Given the high level of interest in playing golf it should not be surprising that celebrity golf tournaments do big business for professional athletes. This weekend we have such a tournament in the form of the 2011 American Century Celebrity Championship. The tournament is a made-for-TV event owned and broadcast by NBC Sports and is arguably the most well-known celebrity tournament.
The tournament is 54 holes at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course and uses a modified Stableford scoring format. It provides a total purse of $600,000 with first place getting $125,000, second place gets $50,000, and third place gets $35,000. Billy Joe Tolliver won the event last year following back-to-back wins by Rick Rhoden.
The event was broadcast Friday on VERSUS and will be on NBC from noon to 3pm pacific Saturday and Sunday. If you happen to be around Lake Tahoe this weekend, you can attend for $25 each day. Tickets are available at the tournament website.
Given the number of celebrities involved, there are a lot of interviews before, during, and after each day of golf. Over the course of the weekend we'll post some video of these interviews, along with results of the tournament.
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