Client · James Hardie™ Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational
Turning a One-of-a-Kind Sports Event Into a National Media Story
A second-year PGA TOUR Champions event in Boca Raton put 26 Pro Football Hall of Famers alongside 78 tour professionals, then watched a two-time major champion win his first Champions start twelve days after turning 50. Golf desks, NFL desks, lifestyle magazines, business wires and local news all had their own reason to cover the same week.
- Event
- James Hardie™ Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational · 2nd annual
- Tier
- PGA TOUR Champions · 54 holes · $2.2M purse
- Dates
- March 2–8, 2026
- Venue
- The Old Course at Broken Sound · Boca Raton, FL
- Field
- 78 PGA TOUR Champions professionals · 26 Pro Football Hall of Famers
- Champion
- Zach Johnson, 11-under 205 — by four shots, in his Champions debut
- Legends champion
- Jimbo Covert, 1-under
- Broadcast
- Golf Channel, national · Friday–Sunday
- Managed by
- Pro Links Sports · Executive Director Ken Kennerly
What the tournament earned
Mention, audience and publicity figures from the reconciled 2026 pull.
Two halls of fame means two newsrooms.
Most golf tournaments compete for one desk. This one is built to reach several. The Champions field gave golf writers a leaderboard. The 26 Hall of Famers gave NFL desks and national columnists a reason to look at a March golf tournament. The week’s programming gave Palm Beach lifestyle magazines something to preview. A Folds of Honor tribute to a 102-year-old D-Day veteran gave local news a story that had nothing to do with either sport. And the title partner’s Habitat for Humanity work put the event on business wires that never cover golf.
Then the tournament got the thing no communications plan can manufacture. Zach Johnson turned 50 on February 24 and won here on March 8 in his first PGA TOUR Champions start — the 22nd player in tour history to win his debut, and the fourth-youngest winner ever, ending a winless stretch dating to the 2015 Open Championship. That is an Associated Press story, and it carried a Boca Raton dateline onto ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Deadspin and sports radio nationwide. The BlueIvy method is built to have the surrounding architecture ready when a moment like that arrives, so a national result lands on a property that has already been introduced.
Six months of continuous story, from the September on-sale to a national wire result that kept running for weeks after the final putt.
Tickets on sale
Entry pricing from $18.99 opens the second-year cycle, followed by a volunteer call for 500+ roles.
Charity result
Year one reported a record $630,000 in charitable contributions, led by $420,000 to Boca Raton Regional Hospital.
The field lands
Newly inducted Class of 2026 Hall of Famer Drew Brees and Warren Sapp join, with Adam Vinatieri in the Pro-Am.
Tournament week
Legends Shootout, community wellness festival, and a Folds of Honor ceremony honoring a 102-year-old D-Day veteran.
Golf Channel
Zach Johnson wins his Champions debut by four. The AP story syndicates nationally and keeps running for weeks.
Twelve days after his 50th birthday, a two-time major champion won his first PGA TOUR Champions start here — the fourth-youngest winner in tour history. A Boca Raton dateline on a national wire story.
Generated 1,716 mentions and 3.62 billion audience impressions across a six-month cycle, from ticket launch through post-tournament coverage.
Delivered three days of national Golf Channel telecast from Boca Raton, with the tournament positioned as a marquee stop on the PGA TOUR Champions schedule.
Landed an Associated Press story on Zach Johnson’s winning Champions debut, carried by ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Deadspin, Field Level Media and sports radio stations across the country.
Doubled the addressable press corps by pairing 78 tour professionals with 26 Pro Football Hall of Famers — Drew Brees, Emmitt Smith, Calvin Johnson, Lawrence Taylor, Marshall Faulk, Ed Reed, Brian Urlacher and Warren Sapp among them.
Built a separate legends storyline with its own champion, as Jimbo Covert won the Hall of Fame division ahead of Lawrence Taylor, DeMarcus Ware, Marshall Faulk, Cris Carter and Dwight Freeney.
Owned the Palm Beach lifestyle press through tournament-week previews in regional magazines and the local dailies, on top of the sports coverage.
Turned a Folds of Honor tribute into standalone local television news, when a Hall of Famer honored a 102-year-old D-Day veteran on the driving range.
Put the title partner’s purpose on national business wires through Habitat for Humanity work — the fifth home built in connection with the tournament, plus a fan putting challenge worth up to $100,000 in donations.
Reinforced the destination story, with the county sports commission positioning the event as proof of Palm Beach County’s standing as an elite host market.
A three-day tournament with a seven-day press week around it.
The competition is 54 holes over three days. The event is a week. Before the first tee shot that counts, the tournament runs a women’s Pro-Am, an invitation-only draw party, two days of Pro-Ams with 48 NFL players, a mic’d-up skins game, a community wellness festival and a veterans ceremony — each with its own audience, its own guest list and its own reason for a camera to be there.
That architecture is what separates a golf result from a news cycle. It gave the 2026 tournament coverage in outlets that do not staff leaderboards: regional lifestyle magazines, community news, business wires and local broadcast. Paired with three cornerstone charities and a national telecast, it turned one weekend of golf into six months of press.
Women’s Pro-Am
Shotgun start opens the week and anchors the tournament’s Women’s Day programming.
Draw Party
Invitation-only evening pairing sponsors and players before competition begins.
Pro-Am
48 NFL players, not all of them Hall of Famers, join professionals across two days of amateur play.
Legends Shootout presented by AutoNation
Inside-the-ropes, mic’d-up four-hole skins game. Brian Urlacher with Zach Johnson, Ed Reed with Darren Clarke, Marshall Faulk with Pádraig Harrington.
Community Wellness Festival
Evening festival built around the tournament’s health and community partners.
Folds of Honor Ceremony
National anthem, color guard and a scholarship presentation on the driving range, with 102-year-old D-Day veteran Harold Terens as guest of honor.
Hall of Fame Competition
26 Pro Football Hall of Famers in two-man best ball across 36 holes, playing their own competition inside the professional field.
The Hardie Hub
Fan putting activation near the first tee, converting made putts into Habitat for Humanity donations up to $100,000.
Championship Sunday
Final round on Golf Channel, decided by four shots in a debut that became national news.
Net proceeds benefit the Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Palm Beach County and First Tee – Florida Gold Coast, with the tournament reporting more than $3 million raised for Boca Raton Regional Hospital to date.
- Associated Press
- ESPN
- Yahoo Sports
- PGATOUR.com
- Golf Channel
- Palm Beach Post
- CBS12
- Deadspin
- Field Level Media
- Boca Raton Tribune
- Jupiter Magazine
- BusinessWire
Source: Critical Mention 2026 pull (1,716 mentions), with coverage verified against published reporting, August 2026. Publicity value reported as ad-value equivalency. Featured outlets drawn from positive-sentiment coverage.
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Report № 03 · James Hardie™ Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational 2026
Figures from a single reconciled pull, 2026
© 2026 BlueIvy Communications