Golf Capsules: Harbour Town tournament searches for title sponsor
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Tournament director Steve Wilmot says there will be a Heritage in 2011, with or without a title sponsor.
Wilmot said Monday that organizers squirreled away enough money to fund the PGA tournament past 2010, the last to feature communications giant Verizon as its main sponsor.
"I can assure you we'll have an event in 2011," Wilmot said.
In 2012, who knows?
"Everything's on the table," Wilmot said.
The Heritage is played at Pete Dye's narrow layout, Harbour Town Golf Links, with its iconic candy-cane striped lighthouse behind the 18th green. And the Heritage has become as much the springtime tradition as The Masters, which precedes it each year.
The Heritage Classic Foundation had a long-term relationship with Verizon Business since 1987, when the Sea Pines Heritage Classic became the MCI Heritage Classic.
The only stumble came between the 2002 and 2003 tournaments — a "hiccup," Wilmot calls it — when the bankruptcy of troubled Worldcom sent organizers scrambling for sponsorships.
In the end, a reorganized and rechristened MCI signed on with the Heritage and continued its backing after Verizon acquired the company in 2006.
However, last September, Verizon Business said it wanted to spread its PGA Tour involvement across several events instead of focusing it all at Harbour Town.
The final Verizon Heritage runs from April 15-18.
"Relationships must end at times," Wilmot said. "Business does change. We understand."
Wilmot is in regular contact with PGA Tour officials, seeking a corporation to take on the financial burden Verizon's giving up. Wilmot said organizers would need about $8 million from a title sponsor.
Besides Verizon, Wilmot said the tournament also must deal with expiring contracts with the PGA Tour and Sea Pines Resort. He expected no surprises in renewing those agreements.
Uncovering a company willing to foot the bills for a PGA Tour event could prove more difficult, especially during uncertain economic times.
"We are working hard at finding a replacement," said Rick Reichel, treasurer of the Heritage Classic Foundation board.
Heritage leaders know they have the backing of the PGA Tour and the players.
Wilmot says the tour has continually helped identify potential sponsors, and players that he's talked to are overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the seaside locale on the schedule.
Golfers cherish the Heritage as the anti-Augusta, a shotmaker's haven where sheer brawn doesn't matter so much. And instead of the Masters' daily cauldron of pressure, Harbour Town is a friendly, relaxing experience.
You might see Ernie Els and his family glide by on bikes, or other pros get in some tennis or fishing before play starts.
Heritage organizers are doing what they can to bolster their case. They'll undertake an economic impact study, its first since 2005 when results showed the tournament generated about $84 million each year to the region. Wilmot has received assurances from state agencies that they'll cooperate in maintaining South Carolina's biggest and most enduring golf event.
Desperate times, though, can lead to drastic concessions.
Wilmot says organizers might look at different dates on schedule if that's what a sponsor sought. He understands that, as one of the PGA Tour's smaller markets, he doesn't have the leverage as events in Dallas, Atlanta or Los Angeles.
Wilmot said about 130,000 people attend the tournament each year.
John Salazar, a professor at USC Beaufort who'll take part in the study with Clemson University researchers, said local businesses and fans need to work together to keep the Heritage.
"From a macro perspective more than golf, the residents have to sink their teeth into the tourism industry," Salazar said.
Already, teams of Heritage volunteers have cold-called area businesses about ways they can help the tournament, Wilmot said. "It doesn't have to be a skybox or a tent. It can be using our license plates."
Wilmot will keep up with his own call sheet, hoping to find a company willing to underwrite the Heritage.
"It's a tough time out there," Wilmot said. "We're looking at all different possibilities."
Storm threat keeps Phoenix Open attendance down
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Attendance at the just completed Phoenix Open in Scottsdale was the lowest in a decade.
Crowds at the 75th Open were down 9.4 percent from a year ago with the event drawing just shy of 426,000 for golf week at the TPC Scottsdale. Attendance Saturday, normally the busiest day, was 121,221, down 26 percent from a year ago.
Besides the weather, the Phoenix Open was competing with the gold medal hockey game at the Winter Olympics Sunday.
The Phoenix Open moves back to its late January start for the next two years, but organizers hope to lobby the PGA for a late February start after that.
Hunter Mahan defeated Rickie Fowler by a stroke Sunday for his second PGA Tour victory and a check worth $1.08 million.
Longtime caddie Greg Rita dies
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Greg Rita, the caddie for Curtis Strange when he won successive U.S. Open titles and for John Daly when he won the British Open, has died of brain cancer.
Rita's wife, Kelley, said he died Saturday on his 54th birthday at McGraw Hospice Center.
Rita caddied over four decades on the PGA Tour for players that included Gil Morgan, Scott Hoch, David Duval and Mark O'Meara.
Rita made his mark working for Strange in the 1980s when he won the U.S. Open in 1988 and 1989, making Strange the first repeat winner in nearly 40 years. He also was on the bag at St. Andrews in 1995 when Daly won his second major.
Rita collapsed at a Champions Tour event in September 2007, and had surgery to remove a brain tumor two months later. He is survived by his wife and a 4-year-old son, Nicolas.
Champions
Champions Tour comes to Miss.
SAUCIER, Miss. — A Hall of Fame field is shaping up for the first Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic golf tournament in Saucier in April.
The tournament, one of 26 stops on the 2010 Champions Tour schedule, has received commitments from six World Golf Hall of Fame members, including Lee Trevino, as well as six other players who have won major championships in their careers.
The 54-hole event is scheduled April 30 through May 2 at Fallen Oak Golf Club. Trevino, 70, long a fan favorite on the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, played in only six tournaments last season.
"We are still two months out and we have already attracted one of the best fields on the Champions Tour," tournament director Steve Neiman said. "It is a real coup to have six-time major winner Lee Trevino in the field. I am also excited that last week Bernhard Langer committed to playing in the tournament."
Trevino and Langer are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, as are four others who have committed to play in the tournament — Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, Hale Irwin and Nick Price.
Aside from that group, which has won more than 15 major titles combined, is a list of six players that have at least one major title to their name. They are Larry Nelson, Lanny Wadkins, Hal Sutton, Craig Stadler, Scott Simpson and Bob Tway.
"What's interesting is to hear the buzz from the players about our event and all the things they want to see and do in the area while they are here," Craig Smith, media and promotions director for the tournament, said.
Other players who have committed to participate in the tournament include Gary Hallberg, Joey Sindelar, Bruce Lietzke and Tommy Armour III.
Smith said many of the players are intrigued about playing Fallen Oak, a Tom Fazio-designed course that was been rated the No. 2 gaming resort course in the United States and has won 12 national honors. Fallen Oak is an exclusive course for guests of Beau Rivage Resort and Casino. It opened in 2006.
The tournament will be preceded by pro-am tournaments on April 28 and April 29.
The Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic will feature a $1.6 million purse, with $240,000 going to the tournament's winner. More than 17 hours of broadcast time will be devoted to the event on The Golf Channel. Habitat for Humanity of the Gulf Coast is the benefiting charity for the event.
-- Tommy Hicks
