T of C Winner Will Receive Hand-Made, Sterling Silver Crown

The champion of the MONY Tournament of Champions will be appropriately anointed with a hand-made, sterling silver crown, announced general chairman Allard Roen.

The coronation will be shown on NBC-TV upon conclusion of play Saturday, Jan.. 11, at La Costa and Country Club.

A similar crown will be presented to the senior champion.

Golf’s only doubleheader, the $500,000 MONY Tournament of Champions and the $100,000 Senior MONY Tournament of Champions, will be played simultaneously Jan. 8-11. An 18-hold pro-am will be held Tuesday Jan. 7.

Defending champion Tom Kite, PGA Player of The Year Lanny Wadkins, leading money winner Curtis Strange, winners of the four Majors, Andy North, U. S. Open; Hubert Green, PGA Championship; Bernhard Langer, Masters, and Sandy Lyle, British Open, plus Fuzzy Zoeller, UCLA’s Corey Pavin, Calvin Peete, Raymond Floyd, sensational amateur Scott Verplank, Jim Thorpe, Roger Maltbie and Hal Sutton are among the 31 qualifiers shooting for the $90,000 first prize.

“As the first official PGA tournament of the year, the Tournament of Champions now is to golf what the Super Bowl is to football and the World Series is to baseball,” observed Roen.

“With all the 1985 winners here, they can battle it out to determine the true champion of champions.”

In the senior companion feature, defending champion Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Don January, Miller Barber, Lee Elder and rookie Gary Player will be leading contenders for the $30,000 first prize.