Come Sunday at 10:30 a.m., it will become official during simultaneous news conferences in Carlsbad, Calif., and Tucson: The $7.5 million WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship is moving to the Old Pueblo in 2007.

In what is certainly one of the game’s great reversals of fortune, tiny Tucson (by PGA Tour standards) will gain one of the Tour’s biggest events. Along with it comes Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and everybody else that is ranked among the top 64 players in the world.

And with that star-studded field will come a new venue – the South Course at the Gallery at Dove Mountain in Marana, which sits just to the north of the Tucson city limits. The upscale private course replaces Tucson National, which had held the 60-year-old event – on and off – since 1965.

Gee, it wasn’t that long ago -- seven years -- that the Tour had knocked the Chrysler Classic of Tucson all the way into orbit as a satellite event opposite the Match Play. The move, which many thought was slightly underhanded, considering Tucson was one of the Tour’s oldest tournaments, angered some players along with the Tucson Conquistadors, the civic group that sponsors the event.

It could have been worse, but the Conquistadors stuck to their guns, turning down a Tour proposal that it opt out of the regular tour for a stand-alone Champions or Nationwide event. No, we want to remain in the big league no matter how much our status is reduced, the Conquistadors replied.

That moxy is what got the Conquistadors and their tournament to this point in time. But, wait, the story gets even better!

According to a source within the negotiations (which took over a year to work out), the Conquistadors get the Match Play without putting up a single dime. Unlike most regular-season events which pay 42 percent of the purse (the Tour pays the other 52 percent), such as the FBR Open, Tucson is only going to pay logistical expenses.

“The Conquistadors are 100 percent off the hook for the $7.5 million purse,’’ said the source, who asked to remain anonymous because of his integral role in the negotiations. “(The purse) will be paid for by the sponsor (Accenture) and the PGA Tour.’’

Wow, talk about a smokin’ deal. Not only does Tucson get one of the top-10 most prestigious events in golf, it doesn’t have to pay for it and gets to keep the gate and corporate receipts to boot.

“It’s a win-win-win,’’ said the source. “It gives Arizona another 20 more hours of exposure on national and international television following the FBR Open, and it’s great for the Gallery, and terrific for Tucson.’’

Perhaps best of all, added the source, is that the Conquistadors’ charitable contributions to southern Arizona are certain to soar.

“That might be the coolest deal of all, because they haven’t been able to raise much (in the past seven years).’’

There’s a little irony involved here. First, Tucson always has taken a backseat on the PGA Tour schedule to the FBR Open, but not any more. Second, Tucson once was a match-play tournament, dating back to 1984-86, when it was called the Seiko-Tucson Match Play Championship.

And after struggling for years, financially, the tournament is going to get it all back with the major beneficiary being its charities. Who could ask for more?

There is a lesson in here somewhere, but you can draw your own conclusions. Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of match play on TV, and I’ll miss the young guns that always seemed to prevail here, first-time winners like Robert Gamez, Phil Mickelson, Lee Janzen, Jim Carter and defending champ Geoff Ogilvy, to name a few.

At the same time, good for Tucson. I always have said it was a lot like its gunslinger past -- “a town that’s too tough to die.’’