Celebrity Golf celebrates 19th anniversary at Edgewood Tahoe

When Super Bowl MVP Mark Rypien won the inaugural American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in 1990, current Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was six.

Now Rodgers finds himself the center of attention among a crowded group of famous athletes and faces because of the soap opera involving Brett Favre and himself in Green Bay. Rogers said this week is just about golf and getting away for him.

“Coming up to the American Century Championship in Tahoe is basically the best week of summer,” Rodgers said. “The people associated with this tournament, NBC, Harrah’s, they take incredible care of us; a lot of great events here. Obviously we’re here to play golf.

"I'm up in the mountains hanging out with my family. So I've been pretty immune to any media reports out there. So that's basically what I'm doing. I'm up here in Tahoe playing in the American Century Championship, and that's kind of my focus the next four or five days."

Rodgers is just one of dozens of the biggest names in sports and entertainment gathered in Stateline, Nevada this weekend for the 19^th American Century Championship, celebrity golf's most popular tournament that is annually hosted by Edgewood Tahoe Golf Club.

This year's field of stars is the brightest in the 19-year history of golf's greatest celebrity gathering, including Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Wayne Gretzky, Tony Romo, Denis Miller, Ray Romano, Mario Lemieux, Dan Marino, LaDanian Tomlinson, John Elway and Jerry Rice.

First timers include NASCAR superstar Dale Jarrett, actor Adrian Quinn, skateboarding icon Ryan Sheckler, sports announcer Joe Buck, baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith and eight-time national sports writer of the year Rick Reilly.

Defending champion Chris Chandler, who guided the Atlanta Falcons to a Super Bowl, is back in the field. The former All-Pro quarterback fired a 5-under-par 67 scoring a total of 31 points. The veteran quarterback set both single day and tournament records for points with his final round play.

The tournament switched to the Stableford scoring system a number of years ago. Unlike stroke play when the object is to record the lowest score, the goal under the Stableford system is to accumulate the highest total of points.

Chandler said that because of the timing of the NFL season, football players get the best offseason for golf.

"I think football players get to play their offseason in the best weather conditions you know, from pretty much the end of January, February all the way through until July, until camp start," he said. "A lot of the other sports don't' fall into that time of year. So it seems like football players get to play a lot more golf in their offseason."

Tony Romo has certainly been playing his fair share of golf and is a player to watch this weekend. Earlier this year Romo shot a 1-over 72 in U.S. Open qualifying and followed that up by shooting an 84 on the same Torrey Pines South Course that played host to the actual U.S. Open in June.

Romo is one of the hottest names in the field right now, but there are certainly plenty of recognizable faces and names which make this tournament so compelling and watchable.

"Our TV ratings, the weekend that we're up against the John Deere Classic," said NBC Sports Director of Business Development, Quinn. "Our numbers are equitable if not exceed the PGA TOUR on this weekend. So that speaks volumes for, again, a made-for-television event.

"I think if you look from top to bottom, from one to 83, and you look from top to bottom at a PGA TOUR event, we probably have a more recognizable field from top to bottom," Quinn continued. "And so I think that we're actually as part of the 20^th year, that might be our new motto, that we have the most recognizable field in golf. People like watching it. They like to see the Michael Jordans and Charles Barkleys and Ray Romanos out of their element and trying to do what they do every day to better their handicap."

The tournament has been played at Edgewood Tahoe's 6,707 lakeside course since its inception in 1990. Originally the South Tahoe area was hoping to host a regular PGA Tour stop after the 1985 U.S. Senior Open at Edgewood but eventually stumbled upon celebrity golf.

Former New York Knicks radio man Jim Karvellas pitched the innovative concept of a celebrity golf tournament and Caesars Tahoe (now MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa) gambled on it. NBC sealed the deal by providing a stage for the first Celebrity Golf Championship on July 12-15, 1990, at Edgewood.

Participating in that historic first year at Edgewood Tahoe were Marino, Jordan, Elway, Jack Wagner, Vince Van Patten, Lawrence Taylor, Mike Schmidt, Kenny Rogers, Randy Quaid, Jim Rice, Joe Namath, John Havlicek, Bob Cousy, Ernie Banks, Rick Barry and Danny Ainge.

Quinn spoke about the success of an event that was created specifically for television.

"This is a made-for-TV event, started from scratch," he said. "And one of the longest-running made-for-TV events, maybe second to the skins game. But we've had Wimbledon for 30 years, and the French Open for probably that long. But this ranks right up there as one of the longest, most successful events in NBC Sports history. It's a pretty remarkable story."

In addition the television success of the event, the celebrity golf tournament has really raised the profile of the entire Lake Tahoe area.

"This is a six-day event for us, and it really...it has so much more impact than just the six days that it goes on," said Carol Chaplin, executive director of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority. "Because of the television coverage and because of the notoriety of the event and, of course, what this event, it really is, I think, in my mind, the number one event we produce in the year. It has a shelf life that goes from July to July."

NBC Sports will televise the second and final rounds of the tournament live on Saturday, July 12 from 1-3 pm PT/4-6 pm ET and Sunday, July 13 from 12-3 pm PT/3-6 pm ET, with Friday's opening round on ESPN2, 4-6 pm PT/7-9 pm ET.

The American Century Championship will award $600,000 in prize money - with $125,000 to the winner. Scoring is based on a modified Stableford format with 10 points for a double eagle, 8 for a hole-in-one, 6 for eagle, 3 for birdie, 1 for par, 0 for bogey and minus 2 for double-bogey or higher.

The event is sponsored by American Century Investments, a premier investment manager serving financial intermediaries, institutions and individual investors.

For the third consecutive year, Lance Armstrong will collaborate with American Century making the Lance Armstrong Foundation a main beneficiary of this year's tournament. In 2006, the investment firm introduced a new series of asset allocation funds under the LIVESTRONG Portfolios banner. Since its inception in 1990, Tahoe's celebrity golf tournament has raised over $3 million for a variety of charities.