Good news for Hickory Golf Tournament lovers, spectators, patrons, and the North Carolina Golf Communities in the award winning neighborhood of Rock Barn in Conover NC! Last month, the PGA announced the 2010 Champions Tour schedule and Hickory’s Rock Barn event made the cut. Previously, it seemed as if this year’s Greater Hickory Classic Champions Tour PGA event might not happen, as the economic slowdown has effected golf tournaments everywhere including the prestigious Hickory Classic. This past week, tournament director Jim Correll announced at a news conference at Rock Barn Golf & Spa that the tournament would take place for an 8th year. The 2010 event will take place again at Rock Barn Golf & Spa.  The tournament will now go by a different name to reflect its new sponsor, Ensure, a manufacturer of adult nutrional beverages.

This year’s Champions Tour event in Hickory North Carolina is called the Ensure Classic at Rock Barn. Ensure makes nutritional shakes for older adults and is the flagship brand for company Abbott Nutrition. Abbott is a worldwide company that employs more than 72,000 people and markets products in more than 130 countries. The new name change for the event reflects the tournament event location and this year’s sponsor. Of course, the well manicured, idyllic community of Rock Barn is happy to host this year’s event and will take on most of the event’s costs, which are upwards of $4 million dollars, $500,000 of which is solely for the Golf Channel’s broadcasting. No doubt, this event is a wonderful event for Rock Barn Golf & Spa and the greater Hickory area.

The 2010 Ensure Classic at Rock Barn PGA Champions Tour event will take place September 27th through October 3rd and will have a winning purse of $1.75 million dollars. Annually, the tournament draws anywhere from 80,000 to 83,000 spectators and proceeds from the event are usually in the ballpark of $100,000 to $150,000, all of which goes to local area charities. Champions Tour golf events are for professional golfers age 50 and older. Annually, the tournaments attract a field of 78 players. The 2010 Champions Tour will visit 15 states and countries such as Scotland, South Korea and the Dominican Republic, in addition to the Robert Trent Jones Jr. design at Rock Barn Golf Club. Past champions of the tournament have been Craig Stadler (2003), Jay Haas (2005 and 2009) and R.W. Eaks (2007 and 2008).