Chiquita Classic relocates to Greater Charlotte, N.C.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The PGA TOUR's Nationwide Tour will partner with Chiquita Brands to bring the Nationwide Tour to Charlotte, N.C. for the first time in 2012 when the Chiquita Classic is played Sept. 24-30 at The Club at Longview. The announcement comes six weeks after Chiquita unveiled plans to relocate its global headquarters to Charlotte. A three-year tournament agreement is in place.

"We are pleased to bring the Chiquita Classic to the greater Charlotte area," said Fernando Aguirre, Chiquita chairman and chief executive officer. "We promised to help make a positive impact in the Charlotte area, and bringing this fantastic golf tournament here will do just that. The Chiquita Classic also provides us a great opportunity to feature our nutritious products, highlight our commitment to health and wellness, and to assist Greater Charlotte charities."

The Chiquita Classic will feature a field of 156 players competing over 72 holes of stroke play for a purse of $550,000. The Club at Longview is a 7,065-yard layout designed by legend Jack Nicklaus which opened for play in 2003 with a guided tour of the golf course by the architect himself. It is located in the Charlotte suburb of Weddington, about 15 miles from downtown. A pro-am will be played on Wednesday, Sept. 26th.

All four rounds of the Chiquita Classic will air on Golf Channel in the U.S., with the tournament made available in 176 countries and territories around the world. The Chiquita Classic joins the PGA TOUR's Wells Fargo Championship, played at Quail Hollow Club in May, as Charlotte's fall option to watch and support a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event.

"The Nationwide Tour is thrilled to partner with Chiquita in Charlotte," said Nationwide Tour president Bill Calfee. "We have had a very solid relationship with them since they joined our family of sponsors two years ago. Chiquita has made a strong commitment to the Nationwide Tour and to Greater Charlotte, and we look forward to building a first-class event.

"The Chiquita Classic will provide significant national and international exposure for not only the Chiquita brand, but the Charlotte community as well," Calfee added. "The Classic will have a measurable impact on local charities given Chiquita's corporate focus on giving back and building on the PGA TOUR's already strong presence in Charlotte that the Wells Fargo Championship has established."

"It is always an honor when one of our golf courses is selected to host a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event," said Jack Nicklaus, whose Nicklaus Design firm has created as many as 95 courses which have hosted a professional tournament worldwide or a significant U.S. national amateur championship. "The Club at Longview was our first design work in the Charlotte area and it turned out to be a beautiful setting for golf. The property was naturally rolling, with nice changes in elevation. There was a mix of existing open fields, accented by wooded draws or valleys that contained wetlands, streams and lakes. This all combined to add to the variety of the golf experience. Outside of the aesthetics, the golf course at Longview should be a good test of golf for these up-and-coming TOUR professionals. The golf fans in the Charlotte area should enjoy the level of competition when the Chiquita Classic comes to town in September."

The Chiquita Classic will name a benefiting charity or charities in the near future. In addition, the tournament will implement the "Charity Ticket Program", which will enable Charlotte-area charities to sell Chiquita Classic tickets and retain 100 percent of the sales for the benefit of their respective organizations. The 2010 and 2011 Chiquita Classics raised more than $400,000 for charitable organizations. Details will be announced at a later date on how greater Charlotte-area charities can participate in the Charity Ticket Program.

Several former Nationwide Tour players and current PGA TOUR members call Charlotte home, including Brendon de Jonge, Mathew Goggin, Jason Kokrak, Webb Simpson and Johnson Wagner, all of whom but Goggin are entered in this week's TOUR event, the Sony Open in Hawaii. Charlotte native and four-time UNC-Charlotte All-American Corey Nagy participated in today's press conference. The 23-year-old will be a rookie on the Nationwide Tour this year. His best finish in five Tour starts, a T22, coincidentally came at last year's Chiquita Classic.

Tournament management for the Chiquita Classic will be provided by HNS Sports Group, a full-service event management company headquartered in the Columbus, Ohio suburb of Dublin. HNS runs the PGA TOUR's Memorial Tournament, the Nationwide Tour's Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational and the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge, among other charity and professional tournaments.