SBS Tournament of Champions Winners and History

SBS Tournament of Champions Winners and History

The SBS Tournament of Champions is the latest incarnation of the PGA Tour’s traditional season opening event with a field composed exclusively of winners from the previous season. Since the wraparound season was implemented, however, the Tournament of Champions now find itself positioned nearly a quarter of the way through the season.

I was surprised, when researching this piece, just how far back the SBS Tournament of Champions extends. The first winner was Al Besselink in 1953 at the Desert Inn Country Club in Las Vegas Nevada. It remained there until the 1967 and 1968 tournaments, when it was played at Las Vegas’ Stardust Country Club. The following year, it moved to the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California. In 1999, the event moved to the The Plantation Course at Kapalua, Hawaii, where it remains to this day.

Jack Nicklaus (who else?) holds the record for most tournaments won, in 1963, 1964, 1971, 1973 and 1977. Four others—Stuart Appleby, Gene Littler, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson have three victories each. Interestingly, Appleby (2004, 2005 and 2006) and Littler (1955, 1956 and 1957) won theirs in consecutive years.

SBS is Seoul Broadcasting System, a South Korea-based television and ratio network. A privately owned operation, it has offered terrestrial digital TV service in the ATSC format since 2001, and T-DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) service since 2005. Its flagship terrestrial television station is Channel 6 for Digital and Cable.

A list of SBS Tournament of Champions winners follows:

[table id=136 /]