Tiger to be part of 24-player field at Tavistock Cup

WINDERMERE, Fla. — The field for the 10th annual Tavistock Cup has been finalized with a collection of 24 players that includes major champions, Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup team members and professional golf’s most accomplished veterans.

The 2013 Tavistock Cup, which will be contested at Isleworth Golf & Country Club on March 25 and 26 and televised live by the Golf Channel, features six teams for the first time in tournament history. Oak Tree National and Primland join Albany, Isleworth, Lake Nona Golf & Country Club and Queenwood Golf Club in this PGA TOUR-sanctioned event known as the World Golf and Country Club Championship.

The six clubs will feature four-man teams.

Team Albany will include Tim Clark, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Tiger Woods.

Team Isleworth’s roster includes Tavistock Cup newcomer D.A. Points and returning players Brian Davis, Bo Van Pelt and Bubba Watson.

Team Lake Nona, the four-time defending champion, is represented by Ross Fisher, Peter Hanson, Graeme McDowell and Henrik Stenson.

Tavistock Cup fixture Charles Howell III joins Team Oak Tree National along with Rickie Fowler, Bob Tway and Scott Verplank, who are all making their Tavistock Cup debuts.

Team Primland’s Fred Couples, Bill Haas, Jay Haas and Webb Simpson will all be playing the Tavistock Cup for the first time.

Representing Team Queenwood, Tom Lewis will make his second Tavistock Cup appearance, and Thomas Bjorn, Paul McGinley and Adam Scott return for their third Tavistock Cup starts.

The professional members of these six golf clubs have collectively won more than 1,012 worldwide tournaments, including 67 major championships, through 2012.

Defending champion Team Lake Nona has collected five Tavistock Cup victories (2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012). Isleworth won the Tavistock Cup in 2004, 2006 and 2008. The 2005 matches between Lake Nona and Isleworth ended in a tie following a sudden-death playoff.

The Tavistock Cup will be played on Isleworth’s championship golf course, the creation of Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay and later redesigned by Steve Smyers. More than 25 years later, Isleworth is consistently ranked one of the longest and most challenging courses in the nation and features large, undulating, fast greens.

Established in 2004, the Tavistock Cup began as a friendly crosstown rivalry between Isleworth and Lake Nona’s touring professional members. In 2011, the Tavistock Cup introduced a four-way competition for the first time by bringing in Albany and Queenwood. On its 10th anniversary, the Tavistock Cup expanded to a six-team contest with the addition of Oak Tree National and Primland golf clubs.

With a longstanding commitment to philanthropy, the Tavistock Cup, through the Tavistock Foundation, has generated millions of dollars for charity over the last decade. Beneficiaries throughout the years have included various player charities as well as The First Tee of Lakeland, Orlando Minority Youth Golf Association, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, The UCF Foundation and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute.

The Tavistock Cup is unique in that tickets are not sold to the public. Only club members, sponsors, designated charities and invited guests are admitted to the two-day event, and there are no ropes separating the world’s best players from the spectators.

The tournament will be broadcast live on the Golf Channel in the United States and Canada and airs on international affiliates throughout the United Kingdom, Asia, Australia, Latin America and South Africa. Visit www.tavistockcup.com for real-time live scoring of the 2013 Tavistock Cup.