American Century Championship at Lake Tahoe to welcome NFL first time competitors

Charles Woodson, Travis Kelce, Doug Pederson, Mike Zimmer and Adam Thielen will make up the NFL contingent of first time competitors at the annual American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe this summer, organizers announced Wednesday.

The competition is set for Friday-Sunday, July 14-16 with celeb-am events and charity fundraising planned throughout the week.

Now in its 28th year, the tournament offers a purse of $600,000, while raising money for local and national charities. The 54-hole competition tests the golf skills of 80-plus stars from sports and entertainment and has donated over $4 million to charity. It will be televised live by NBC and NBCSN that weekend from picturesque Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course, its home since the first event in 1990.

Woodson, Kelce, Pederson, Zimmer and Thielen will join prominent NFLers like Marshall Faulk, Tim Brown, Marcus Allen, Herm Edwards, Sebastian Janikowski, Golden Tate, Carson Palmer, Patrick Peterson, Robbie Gould, Marvin Lewis, Sterling Sharpe, Brian Urlacher, Jared Allen, Terrell Davis, Trent Dilfer, Mark Rypien and A.J. Hawk in the annual competition, which serves as a final respite just before the opening of NFL training camps each year.

Jeremy Roenick, Rob Riggle, Kevin Nealon, Alfonso Ribeiro, Oliver Hudson, Larry the Cable Guy, Jason Kidd, Bode Miller and others will also participate at the star-studded event. MLB Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Ozzie Smith and Ivan Rodriguez are slated to play along with Brian Kelly, Notre Dame’s head football coach. Long time favorites Charles Barkley, Aaron Rodgers, John Elway and Jack Wagner are expected to announce their participation in the coming weeks.

The 2017 American Century Championship is scored using the Modified Stableford format whereby points are awarded as follows: 10 for a double eagle, 8 for a hole in one, 3 for a birdie, 1 for par, 0 for bogey, and minus 2 for double bogey. The tournament will be held at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course, a George Fazio design which has been rated by Golf Digest Magazine as one of “America’s Top Golf Courses.”

American Century Investments, the title sponsor of the championship since 1998, continues its role in the nation’s premier celebrity golf tournament through 2022, along with partnerships with NBC Sports, the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course and the South Tahoe community.

Woodson, who played for the Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers, retired in 2015 after a prolific 18-year career that included winning Super Bowl XLV with the Packers, nine Pro Bowl appearances, 2009 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and 1998 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. He is currently a NFL Analyst on ESPN’s set of Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown.

Travis Kelce is a Pro-Bowl tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs who led all tight-ends in receiving yards with 1,125 this past season. He was also listed as one of the NFL Top 100 Players of 2016.

Doug Pederson is coming off his first season as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Prior to taking this position with the Eagles, Pederson spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Kansas City Chiefs. As a player, Pederson was a member of the Green Bay Packers team that won Super Bowl XXXI.

Mike Zimmer has been head coach of the Minnesota Vikings since 2014, leading them to a NFC North division title in 2015. In 2009 while he was with the Cincinnati Bengals, Zimmer won the NFL Assistant Coach of the Year as the Bengals defensive coordinator.