Bank of America Championship (Senior Tour Tournament)

The Bank of America Championship, known by multiple prior names, was a golf tournament on the Champions Tour for nearly 30 years. It stretched from the early 1980s into the late 2000-aughts. The tournament was always played in the Boston area. It was scheduled for 54 holes in length in all but two years.

First played: 1981

Last played: 2008

This tournament boasts multiple back-to-back champions, including Don January, Bob Charles, Hale Irwin and Larry Nelson. But the champion of back-to-back champions was Chi Chi Rodriguez, who went back-to-back-to-back: He won three consecutive years, 1986-88.

Rodriguez also holds the tournament scoring record of 198, set in 1998 and shared with Allen Doyle (2003). Doyle has the 18-hole tournament scoring record with a 63 in 2003.

Bob Gilder in 2004 became the tournament's only wire-to-wire winner, although he needed a playoff to do so.

In 2004, Craig Stadler won this tournament and, on the same day a short time later, his son, Kevin Stadler, won the Lake Erie Charity Classic on the Nationwide Tour. They were the second father-son duo ever to win tournaments on PGA Tour-owned tours on the same day. (The Duvals, Bob and David, won on the Champions Tour and PGA Tour, respectively, in 1999.)

Another family connection: When Jay Haas won in 2007, he joined his uncle, Bob Goalby, who won in 1981, as a Bank of America Championship winner.

Also known as: This tournament had many title sponsors over the years, many of the later ones involving Boston banks. But for its first three years, it was the Marlboro Classic. Digital Middlesex Classic (1984) and Digital Seniors Classic (1985-1992) followed. Then came Bank of Boston Senior Golf Classic (1993-94), BankBoston Classic (1997-99), FleetBoston Classic (2000-2003) and, finally, Bank of America Championship (2004-2008).

Winners of the Champions Tour Bank of America Classic

1981 — Bob Goalby, 208
1982 — Arnold Palmer, 276
1983 — Don January, 273
1984 — Don January, 209
1985 — Lee Elder, 208 (def. Jerry Barber in playoff)
1986 — Chi Chi Rodriguez, 203
1987 — Chi Chi Rodriguez, 198
1988 — Chi Chi Rodriguez, 202
1989 — Bob Charles, 200
1990 — Bob Charles, 203
1991 — Rocky Thompson, 205
1992 — Mike Hill, 136 (weather shortened; won playoff over Walter Zembriski)
1993 — Bob Betley, 204
1994 — Jim Albus
1995 — Isao Aoki, 204
1996 — Jim Dent, 204
1997 — Hale Irwin, 203
1998 — Hale Irwin, 201
1999 — Tom McGinnis, 205 (def. Hale Irwin in playoff)
2000 — Larry Nelson, 203
2001 — Larry Nelson, 201
2002 — Bob Gilder, 203 (def. John Mahaffey in playoff)
2003 — Allen Doyle, 198
2004 — Craig Stadler, 201
2005 — Mark McNulty, 204 (def. Don Pooley and Tom Purtzer in playoff)
2006 — Not played due to weather
2007 — Jay Haas, 203
2008 — Jeff Sluman, 199

Golf courses: The tournament was originally played at Marlboro Country Club in Marlborough, Massachusetts. When it was played at Marlboro CC in 1981-83, it was named after the club, not the cigarette. In 1984 this event moved to Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord, Mass., and remained there through the end.