OT: PGA tour event in the D
would be fucking awesome .....
It sounds like 2018 is the last year a World Golf event will be held at Bridgestone (Akron). They're talking about moving that event to Memphis (Memphis in August doesn't exactly sound delightful).
But Michigan & Ohio can definitely support more than 1 tournament (Memorial in Columbus). Would be good for the sport.
The WGC event is definitely moving to Memphis. That's official. Will now be called the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational. FedEx money is the reason, since they're the main sponsor of the Tour. I know Firestone gets a bad rap from, well just about everyone, but moving to Memphis in August, on a course few would say is better than Firestone, isn't exactly a coup for the Tour.
Word is the reason Gilbert pulled out of Tiger's event in DC, is that he wanted to sponsor an event in Detroit, but that he wanted it within the city. Lots of speculation that Detroit Golf Club is going to be the host for that reason. I'm not familiar with the course enough to comment, but I do know they have the real estate to host an event. Parking appears to be the bigger concern.
Michigan deserves a Tour event. The Buick Open was always extremely well supported and attended, as were the PGA Championships and Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills. This would be a great marriage.
For the PGA to not sanction Tiger's tournament ("The National" held at Congressional CC in DC-- they lost their title sponsor last year) starting in 2019 and using that date on the calendar along with moving the PGA Championship to May to slide a Quicken Loans branded tournament at Detroit Golf Club. Dan Gilbert has made it clear that if he's going to sponsor a tournament, he wants it in metro Detroit (City of Detroit preferentially). DGC works as the course has enough room and holes for the PGA to make a "custom tourney course" out of the existing 36 holes, and with the old State Fairgrounds and U of D within a mile, the PGA has enough facilities for auxilliary things and shuttle parking for fans.
The National is no longer at Congressional. The membership didn't like having the tournament and giving up the better of their two courses so the pros could destroy it for a week. It has moved to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farms (literally across the street) where they held it last year.
Very happy for this since I have several friends who are members at Detroit Golf Club and it's a 20 minute drive from my house. However, it just seems like something as huge as a PGA event will be hard to pull off there. The course is really cool but those big hitters will overwhelm it and I'm not sure there is room to lengthen it. And while there are some cool neighborhoods around there (Palmer Woods, University District), there is also a really shitty neighborhood to the east of there. Virtually everyone who wants to watch or work at the event is going to have to be shuttled in because there is nowhere to park. These are my concerns but a little can-do spirit can figure this all out. Great to see the PGA back in Michigan.
Question: Is this going to be one of those PGA-light tourneys where all of the best players are participating in one of the WGC tournaments?
My first event was a practice round at the US Open at Oakland Hills in '96. What a brutally hard looking golf course. I thought I was a pretty good golfer at the time and then went and watched those guys on the driving range. Unreal and very humbling. Every ball they hit was just a rocket and always hit dead-nuts solid. I was blown away by how much time they put in for practice. They would hit a giant tier of balls on the range, go play 18 holes, come back and hit another round of balls on the range, and then chip, putt and work on their sand game for another hour or so. Like anything, it takes a lot of work to be great. I gained a lot of respect for those guys that day.