As expected, the Champions (Senior) Tour golf tournament in Park City will not be back in 2003. The tournament survived for 21 years and was the Senior Tour's second-longest-running event behind one in Boston. But a lack of a consistent title sponsor, a problem that dogged the tournament for most of the past decade, finally doomed it.
Ever since the Uniting Fore Care Classic was held in August at Park Meadows CC, tournament director Bryan Naugle has been hopeful the tournament could be renewed. "I'm disappointed, obviously. We had such a good event," he said. "It's was ranked by Sports Illustrated as one of the top seven Senior events, yet we can't keep it."
In the past, the Senior Tour was willing to work with the Park City event because it is such a popular event among the players. But without approximately $1.5 million needed annually to sponsor the event, the tournament couldn't continue.
The first tournament, called "Shootout at Jeremy Ranch" was held in 1982 with local favorite Billy Casper coming from behind to win with a 65 in the final round.
The next year it switched to a two-man best ball event with a Senior Tour player teamed with a player from the PGA Tour and another local golfer, Mike Reid, teamed with Bob Goalby to win. Over the next four years, local fans were able to see the likes of Greg Norman, Curtis Strange and Ben Crenshaw along with the Senior stars.
The tournament was nearly canned in the late 1980s but kept surviving. That trend continued in the 1990s with various sponsors keeping the tournament alive. The tournament's future looked bright when Novell took over sponsorship in 1999 with a four-year contract. However, when Novell's fortunes faltered, the company wasn't about to renew and Naugle couldn't come up with a replacement.
"Everybody wants it, but noboby's willing to pay for it," said Naugle, who took over as the tournament director in 1997 after working with the Senior Tour for several years.
The official 2003 Champions Tour schedule will be released next month. It is expected that other tournaments, besides the Park City event, will not be back because of similar sponsorship difficulties.
Utah will still have a PGA Tour event with the Utah Classic on the Nationwide Tour (formerly Buy.com) scheduled for Sept. 4-7 at Willow Creek Country Club.
E-MAIL: sor@desnews.com