Randy Watkins, director of the PGA’s only stop in Mississippi, spoke at Thursday’s Rotary Club meeting at the Vicksburg Country Club to promote this year’s Viking Classic.

It’ll be a special year for the tournament, thanks to the schedule.

This year’s edition of the Classic, which started in 1968 in Hattiesburg before moving up to Madison’s Annandale Golf Club in 1994, will stand alone on the PGA Tour schedule on Oct. 26-Nov. 1. The tourney will be televised on the Golf Channel, putting the state in an international spotlight.

It will be the first time in the tournament’s history that the tourney will have its own date.

Before, the tournament was usually the same weekend as another tournament like the President’s Cup or the Ryder Cup, making Watkins’ job of luring players to the tourney much tougher. This year, the tournament’s timing will give players who wouldn’t ordinarily make the tour stop in Mississippi the chance to play the Jack Nicklaus-designed, 7,177-yard, par-72 course.

“I think it really lifts the profile of our state,” Watkins said of the tournament. “It’s the only major league event we have in Mississippi. We lift it by being one of 46 tournaments in the world that are PGA Tour events. It’s a world-class event, with world-class athletes. This year, we earned the right to be the only PGA Tour event in the world that week.”

The tournament won’t be hurting for star power. PGA stars like former British Open champ John Daly, David Toms, David Duval and Rich Beem have all committed to playing in the tournament and more are likely to sign up. PGA professionals have until the Friday before tournament week to sign up and Watkins will canvass PGA stops trying to convince golfers to make the trip.

“They (PGA pros) don’t usually look that far ahead,” Watkins said. “They usually divide their year into quarters, look at how much money they’ve made, find out what they’re doing when they get home and then they make another schedule. We anticipate having the greatest field we’ve ever had in the history of the tournament.”

The toughest question Watkins gets asked is a really simple one.

“‘Why doesn’t Tiger Woods play here,’” Watkins said of the question he is bombarded with when making his sales pitch to other PGA stars. “‘If Tiger Woods does it, so would I.’ The tour has become about the stars, which is not exactly fair to the 150 of the best in the world that can play the game at this level for a living.”

It hasn’t always been that way for the tourney.

In the tournament’s first years, according to Watkins, the total purse for the tournament was $20,000, with the winner pocketing around $2,000. This year, the tournament purse was $3.7 million, with the winner taking home a check for around $700,000.

But the prize money isn’t the only thing that’s grown. According to Watkins, the tournament has given away more than $5 million to charities. More than 350 charities around the state were the beneficiaries.

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Contact Steve Wilson at swilson@vicksburgpost.com