Dates: Friday, August 31st through Sunday, September 2nd
Site: The Golf Center at Kings Island (Grizzly Course), Mason, Ohio
Course Architect: Jack Nicklaus and Desmond Muirhead (1972)
Par: 70
Yardage: 6,639
Hole-by-Hole: 1 - Par 4 430 Yds 10 - Par 4 366 Yds
2 - Par 4 430 Yds 11 - Par 4 398 Yds
3 - Par 4 374 Yds 12 - Par 3 198 Yds
4 - Par 5 518 Yds 13 - Par 4 412 Yds
5 - Par 3 163 Yds 14 - Par 4 423 Yds
6 - Par 4 402 Yds 15 - Par 4 369 Yds
7 - Par 4 377 Yds 16 - Par 3 186 Yds
8 - Par 3 200 Yds 17 - Par 4 392 Yds
9 - Par 4 455 Yds 18 - Par 5 546 Yds
------------- -------------
35 3,349 Yds 35 3,290 Yds
Annual: 12th
Defending Champion: Hubert Green
Runner-Up: Larry Nelson
Tournament Record: 195 (Jay Sigel, 1997)
36-Hole Record: 129 (Jay Sigel, 1997)
Course Record: 62 (J.C. Snead, 1996)
Total Purse: $1,500,000
Shares: 1st Place - $225,000; 2nd Place - 132,000; 3rd Place - 108,000
2000 Finish
-----------
Player Score Player Score
------ ----- ------ -----
Hubert Green 200 Mike McCullough 205
Larry Nelson 201 Bruce Fleisher 205
John Mahaffey 202 Joe Inman 207
Gil Morgan 203 Dale Douglass 208
Bruce Summerhays 204 Allen Doyle 208
Past Kroger Senior Classic Winners and Runners-up
-------------------------------------------------
2000 -- Hubert Green (200) -- Larry Nelson
1999 -- Gil Morgan (198) -- Ed Dougherty
1998 -- *#Hugh Baiocchi (133) -- Bob Charles, Frank Conner, Larry Nelson,
Bruce Summerhays
1997 -- Jay Sigel (195) -- Isao Aoki
1996 -- Isao Aoki (198) -- Mike Hill, Rocky Thompson
1995 -- Mike Hill (196) -- Isao Aoki
1994 -- Jim Colbert (199) -- Ray Floyd
1993 -- Simon Hobday (202) -- Gibby Gilbert, Mike Hill, Bob Reith
1992 -- *Gibby Gilbert (198) -- J.C. Snead
1991 -- Al Geiberger (203) -- Larry Laoretti
1990 -- #Jim Dent (133) -- Harold Henning
* - Won in Playoff.
# - Rain Shortened.
Top Contenders in the Field
---------------------------
Hubert Green - Defending Champion, only 1 top-10 this year in 21 events
Jose M. Canizares - 12th on the money list with a dozen top-10 finishes
Ed Dougherty - Has 1 win, 9 top-10's this season, lost playoff last week
Allen Doyle - Has recorded an amazing 20 top-10's this year, 2 wins
Walter Hall - Won last week in Canada, 11th on money list, 10 top-10's
Hale Irwin - Two-time winner this year, 11 top-five's in 19 events
Bruce Lietzke - Has 3 top-10's in four starts on Senior Tour with 1 win
Gary McCord - Gained some insight after watching Tiger win last week
Gil Morgan - Has finished 1st & 2nd five times this year, 12 top-10's
Larry Nelson - Four-time winner, has 14 top-10's in just 22 tourneys
Don Pooley - Making his Senior Tour debut, two career PGA wins
Dana Quigley - Competing in his 30th event of the season, 11 top-10's
Jim Thorpe - Only top-10 money winner without a win, 5th last week
Bobby Wadkins - In 3 events, has a win and two top-10's, 49th in money
Lanny Wadkins - Back on Tour after providing TV commentary for PGA Tour
Golftoday Network Selections
-------------------------
Pick to Win - Gil Morgan
Darkhorse - Bruce Summerhays
Last week's Pick to Win (Hale Irwin) - Finished tied for 10th
Last week's Darkhorse (Tom Jenkins) - Finished tied for 31st
NOTES:
Two shots off the pace when Sunday's final round began, Hubert Green
carded a six-under 64 to clip Larry Nelson by one for his third career Senior
Tour win last year. Green, after bogeys on 16 and 17, birdie the final hole
for the victory. Green, who shot a second round 70, became the first player
in event history, to shoot a round in the 70's and win this event. All ten
previous winners of this event have never carded a round in the 70s. Since the
start of the event in 1990, a player that has either led or been tied for the
lead after two rounds has won the event five times. Only three of the 11
first-round leaders or co-leaders have gone on to win the tournament. Mike Hill
holds the distinction of being one of only 10 players who has claimed a SENIOR
TOUR event at the same course at which he won a PGA TOUR title. Hill, the 1995
Kroger Senior Classic champion, won the 1997 Ohio Kings Island Open, the last
of his three PGA TOUR victories. The purse was increased by $100,000 from last
year. No player has ever successfully defended his title at this tournament.
Isao Aoki won this event in 1996 and finished second in 1995 and '97 while Mike
Hill won this tournament in 1995 and finished second in 1993 and '96. There
have been two playoffs in the history of the tournament, 1998 when Hugh
Baiocchi outlasted four players in a weather shortened event and in 1992 when
Gibby Gilbert parred the second hole to defeat J.C. Snead. There have been five
one-stroke victories, two two-stroke victories and two playoffs in the event's
11-year history. There have been three holes-in-one in tournament history. The
first was by Lee Trevino (#12/final round) in 1992. Three years later, Dick
Goetz (#5/2nd round) made an ace and in 1996, Jimmy Powell (#16/2nd round).
Gil Morgan has a run of six straight rounds in the 60s at the Grizzly course
and is a cumulative 19-under over this stretch at Kings Island. Don Pooley, the
winner of the 1980 B.C. Open and 1987 Memorial Tournament on the PGA TOUR,
turned 50 on Monday and will be competing this week. Pooley tied for fifth in
the BUY.COM Charity Pro-Am earlier this year. The last player to win his first
Senior Tour start was Bobby Wadkins just last month and the Long Island
Classic. This will be the final year of the event being played at Kings Island.
Next season, the tournament moves just eight miles north to the Tournament
Players Club at River's Bend, which opened in July of 2001. The course is
located about 25 miles from downtown Cincinnati. Eight of the top-10 money
winners are competing this week. The only exceptions are: Bruce Fleisher and
Doug Tewell. Next week, the Senior Tour moves to Des Moines, Iowa for the
inaugural Allianz Championship, held at Glen Oak Country Club.
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