The Champions Tour:
The Champions Tour, a golf tour run by the PGA Tour, hosts 30 events annually in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Mexico for golfers 50 years of age and older. Many of the PGA Tour's most successful golfers have gone on to play on the Champions Tour.
The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many years the only high-profile tournament for golfers over 50. The idea for a senior tour grew out of a highly successful event in 1978, the Legends of Golf, which featured competition between two-member teams of some of the greatest older golfers of that day. The tour was formally established in 1980 and was known as the Senior PGA TOUR until October 2002.
All of the events in the 2007 schedule are in the United States except for the Senior British Open in the United Kingdom. In 2006 the guaranteed minimum official prize money is $52.65 million. This is a little over twenty percent of the prize money on the PGA Tour, and slightly less than the women's LPGA Tour.
Most of the tournaments are played over three rounds (54 holes), which is one round less than regular professional strokeplay tournaments on the PGA Tour. Because of this and having smaller fields, there are generally no "cuts" between any of the rounds. However, the five senior majors have a full 72 holes (four rounds). A golfer's performances can be quite variable from one round to the next, and playing an extra round increases the likelihood that the senior majors will be won by leading players. In 2006, the Champions Tour Division Board of the PGA Tour organisation voted to allow players the option to use golf carts during most events on the tour. The five major championships and certain other events, including pro-ams, are excluded.