APGA Tour linking with PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions for events later this year

The APGA Tour’s footprint in professional golf continues to expand. 

The tour will host its first international tournament, the Butterfield Bermuda APGA Championship, in conjunction with the PGA Tour, from Oct. 11-12. The event will be at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda, the same site as the PGA Tour’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship, which will be played from Oct. 27-30. 

“We are thankful to the Butterfield Bermuda Championship team and the Bermuda Tourism Authority for providing our players and our tour with this opportunity,” APGA Tour CEO Ken Bentley said. “In addition to having the chance to compete, we are also excited to connect our players with the PGA Tour throughout the week while showcasing what makes Bermuda an incredible destination and spreading the message of equality and inclusion.”

The field will include the tour’s top 18 finishers from the final 2022 APGA Tour Lexus Cup standings. Three local Bermudians will have a chance to earn a spot in the field during the local qualifier at Port Royal Golf Course. Bermuda native Daniel Augustus regularly plays the tour and currently sits No. 8 in the Lexus Cup standings. The purse will be $60,000 — the tour’s fourth largest.

The Butterfield Bermuda APGA Championship won’t be the only time the APGA teams up with the PGA Tour later this year. 

In co-occurrence with the PGA Tour Champions, the APGA will hold a tournament at Glen Echo Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 8 and 9, directly ahead of the senior tour’s Ascension Charity Classic, which will be played at Norwood Hills Country Club, also in St. Louis. 

The APGA Tour’s elder statesman, Tim O’Neal, who has played on the tour since its inception in 2010, will play in the Ascension Charity Classic on a sponsor’s exemption. O’Neal turned 50 on Aug. 3. 

The winner of the APGA tournament at Glen Echo will receive a sponsor exemption into the PGA Tour’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba in Mexico in November. 

“The key to their growth is to pair with [PGA Tour] and PGA Tour Champions and have that energy linked into the APGA event,” Ascension Executive Vice President Nick Ragone said. “I think it’s already increased the visibility and purses, and I think if enough [PGA Tour] events pair up, in a couple of years the APGA will have full developmental status.”