Hilton Head Island, S.C. – The 2014 eGolf season will come to a close this week with the $300,000 Tour Championship, set to be contested at award-winning Palmetto Hall Plantation Club on December 3-6, 2014. The 168-player field will be vying for a share of the largest guaranteed purse in developmental tour golf history, with some of the top up-and-coming names in the game competing on one of the most demanding venues in professional golf.

The eGolf Tour Championship will serve as the final event in the Charlotte, N.C.-based company’s breakthrough Million Dollar Championship Series – a four-tournament stretch of golf featuring $1 million dollars in guaranteed prize money. Prior to the Tour Championship, players competed for $225,000 at the River Hills Championship (Lake Wylie, S.C.) and the Island View Casino Championship (Gulfport, Miss.), as well as $250,000 at last month’s Championship at Red Hawk (Sparks, Nev.).

“The developmental tour golf landscape has changed immensely this year, with a number of tours struggling to stay afloat in what has become a rather saturated market,” said eGolf president David Siegel. “This Million Dollar Championship Series has allowed us to rise above the parity and further distinguish ourselves as the de facto No. 3 tour in the country. We are excited to conclude our 2014 season at a familiar venue with the best purse in mini-tour history.”

The eGolf Tour Championship will mark the tour’s sixth trip to Palmetto Hall Plantation since the 2010 season, as the exclusive club has hosted the season-opening Palmetto Hall Championship presented by Westin Hilton Head Island each of the past five years. The tournament, annually one of the most popular on tour, has produced champions such as current PGA TOUR member Russell Knox (2010), former PGA TOUR member Brent Delahoussaye (2012), current Web.com Tour members Matt Hendrix (2013) and Corey Nagy (2011), as well as 2011 Western Amateur champion Ethan Tracy (2014).

Ethan Tracy 

“Since 2002, we have built an entire brand around the idea that the golf course itself is the centerpiece of tournament golf,” Siegel said. “Palmetto Hall annually delivers two of the most-demanding layouts on our schedule, and sets 10-under-par as an early-week target for players looking to win. We simply could not ask for a better host venue.”

The star of the show, so to speak, at Palmetto Hall, is the Robert Cupp course. The acclaimed track is a demanding layout that requires precise shot-making in and around a multitude of hazards that feature unprecedented geometric shaping. The Cupp Course annually ranks as one of the five most difficult courses on the tour schedule, evidenced by the fact that only eight players have finished the week at 10-under or better since the inception of the Palmetto Hall Championship in 2010.

While the courses at Palmetto Hall help attract what is easily the year’s best field in developmental tour golf, the guaranteed $300,000 purse sets the event on a nearly-unprecedented tier in the industry. The Tour Championship purse is the largest purse in mini-tour golf since the 2009 eGolf Tour Championship, and is the fourth-largest men’s professional golf purse in South Carolina history, trailing only the PGA TOUR’s RBC Heritage and the Web.com Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am and now-defunct South Carolina Classic.

“At the end of the day, what moves the meter for these guys is the ability to make a living while chasing a lifelong PGA TOUR dream,” said Siegel, himself a former mini-tour player. “The Million Dollar Championship Series has put forth guaranteed purses and payouts that help keep those dreams afloat in a profession where going broke is more common than most would think.”

Players of note at the 2014 Tour Championship include:

Edward Loar (Dallas, TX)

Loar will be making his second start of the year after notching a solo-fourth-place effort at last month’s Championship at Red Hawk. The former Oklahoma State star competed on the PGA TOUR (2012 & 2014) and the Web.com Tour (2013) over the past three years, winning the Web.com Tour’s Panama Claro Championship in 2012 and Chitimacha Louisiana Open title in 2013. Loar made headlines when he contended at the midway point of the 2013 U.S. Open at famed Merion Golf Club before finishing T32 on the week. The married father of triplets posted three top-10s in nine starts on the eGolf Tour in 2010-2011, twice recording course-record rounds of 62 – the latter falling at three-time U.S. Women’s Open host Pine Needles Resort.

Edward Loar

Harold Varner III (Gastonia, NC)

Two-year eGolf member will be returning to his old stomping grounds for the first time in 2014 after competing on the Web.com Tour throughout the year. Varner, a rookie on the PGA TOUR’s developmental circuit this year, finished 42nd on the season-ending money list, thanks to six top-25 finishes and a season-best T2 at the Rex Hospital Open in May. The former East Carolina star was a veritable machine in two years on the eGolf Tour, posting 13 top-10s in 25 starts – including three runner-ups in 2013 alone. Varner missed the cut in his only career start at Palmetto Hall (2013).

Seamus Power (West Waterford, Ireland)

The tour’s leading money winner with $80,104 in earnings, Power has been without question the top developmental tour player in the country this year with wins at the Cowans Ford Open in March, the Southern Open in July, and seven additional top-5 finishes on his 2014 resume. The Charlotte, N.C. resident has four wins and 12 top-3 finishes since the start of the 2012 season, and recently advanced to the final stage of Web.com Tour Q-School with an impressive five-shot victory at his second stage site just two weeks ago. Power finished T4 this year at the Palmetto Hall Championship – his first top-10 in four starts at the event.

Steven Fox (Hendersonville, TN)

A former UT-Chattanooga star, Fox won the U.S. Amateur Championship at famed Cherry Hills Country Club in 2012 after earning the 63rd of 64 match play seeds in a 17-players-for-14-spots playoff following the conclusion of 36 holes of stroke play. The victory delivered exemptions into the 2013 Masters Tournament, U.S. Open and Open Championship, as well as seven additional starts in PGA TOUR-sanctioned events, including this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. A 2014 Web.com Tour member, Fox made one of four cuts on the PGA TOUR’s developmental circuit this year, but recorded five top-25s in eight starts on the eGolf Gateway Tour in 2014 – including a season-best T5 at the Island View Casino Championship in September.

Seamus Power

Chris Epperson (Hilton Head Island, SC)

Like Varner, Epperson will also be making his first eGolf start of the year after spending the 2014 season on the Web.com Tour. The 32-year-old local favorite made six cuts in 20 starts on the Web.com Tour, with his lone top-25 coming at the Panama Claro Championship in March (T20). On the eGolf Tour, Epperson starred as one of the most consistent performers, finishing third on the 2012 money list and sixth on the 2013 money list during a two-year span in which he made 30-of-31 cuts. The former Armstrong Atlantic State golfer notched 11 top-5s over that stretch, including a third-place finish at the 2013 Palmetto Hall Championship, where he was the tournament’s 54-hole leader.

Additional local players in the field include Brett Harris (Hilton Head Island, S.C.), Drew Aimone (Savannah, Ga.) and Steven Bass (Tybee Island, Ga.).

Other notable players in the field at the Tour Championship include 2014 PGA TOUR member Peter Malnati (Dandridge, Tenn.), 2007 British Amateur champion Drew Weaver (High Point, N.C.), five-time tour winner Ryan Nelson (Charleston, S.C.), four-time tour winner T.J. Howe (Osceola, Pa.), 2013 leading money winner Frank Adams III (Laurinburg, N.C.) and former World No.1-ranked amateur Chris Williams (Moscow, Idaho).

Tournament week will open with practice rounds on Monday (12/1) and Tuesday (12/2) over both the Robert Cupp and Arthur Hills courses at Palmetto Hall.

First-round play will begin on Wednesday (12/3) morning, with players split over both courses, as the field will log one round each on both Cupp and Hills prior to the 36-hole cut, which will fall after the conclusion of Thursday’s second round. The final two rounds of play will be contested solely on the Cupp course.

For more information on the $300,000 Tour Championship, or the eGolf’s Million Dollar Championship Series, please visit www.egolf.com.

For more information on Palmetto Hall Plantation, please visit www.palmettohallgolf.com.