Champions Tour event stakes success on a proven celebrity pro-am format, but not all pros like what's on the menu.
By BOB HARIG
Published February 15, 2004
To find something remiss with Tampa Bay's senior golf event would require the most persnickety of nit-pickers. For 16 years, first at Tampa Palms and now at the TPC of Tampa Bay, the circuit now known as the Champions Tour could point to the local tournament as a model for others to emulate.
It has drawn swarming crowds and attracted some of the best fields the 50-and-older game has to offer. Even when the tour faced some bleak days, when the aging superstars who made it so popular were around less and less, the tournament thrived. An abundance of sunburned spectators offered plenty of proof.
Now the game has changed.
The Champions Tour arrives this week with a new sponsor, a new name and a new format.
The popular local restaurant chain Outback Steakhouse helped rescue the tournament from possible extinction after Verizon decided not to renew. Now called the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, the $1.6-million, 54-hole tournament begins Friday.
And that's when fans will see the biggest difference. For the first time, amateurs play alongside the pros in tournament rounds. While the pros compete for the $240,000 first prize, the amateurs try to keep their nerves in check and keep from injuring someone in the crowd.
But the Pebble Beach-type format is not without risk, especially at a place that already was deemed one of the best tournaments on tour. Not all the pros are enamored with the format, preferring to play their game without the distractions of divots and double bogeys flying around them.
The TPC of Tampa Bay is an excellent course, but Lutz is not Pebble Beach, Calif.
And before the first tee has gone in the ground the tournament managed to annoy a certain Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus, who growled about being unable to bring his son, Steve, as his amateur playing partner.
"I just felt like the opportunity to have a Pebble Beach event in the Southeast would be received positively," said Outback CEO Chris Sullivan, an avid golfer (6 handicap) who has played in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am four times, including last weekend.
"I think it's one of the great golf experiences in the world to be able to get inside the ropes with these guys when their scores really count. It's just a unique experience. I've thoroughly enjoyed that. But change takes time. We appreciate the people at the tour who took the time to work with us on it. We're very excited. It's our responsibility now to make sure we execute a first-class event."
Sullivan played with PGA Tour veteran Billy Andrade at Pebble Beach, which rotates among three courses and has been played on the Monterey Peninsula in Northern California since 1947. Nicklaus is not adverse to the concept. In fact, he won the event once known as the Crosby three times.
But Nicklaus was taken aback when he inquired about bringing his son to be his partner, a common practice at Pebble Beach. He was politely told that would not be possible here.
"I said, "Well, have a nice tournament.' I have no desire to just go over and play with somebody I don't know," said Nicklaus, 64. "I'm not going to play enough golf as it is. If I am going to come and play, I'm going to play something I want to play in, which is a regular tournament, or play with one of my boys.
"I am beyond going to golf tournaments just to play golf."
Tournament director Amy Hawk said Outback did not want to make an exception for Nicklaus out of fairness to the amateurs paying $10,000 for the privilege and other players who inquired and were told about the policy.
At the Bayer Advantage event in Kansas City, Mo., which also has a pro-am format, tournament director Bob Burris has taken a different approach. He wrote letters to every player inviting them to bring an amateur partner, with the spots costing $7,500 apiece. Pros who don't bring a partner will be paired with other amateurs. Regardless, Burris believes the pro-am format will prove popular.
"I think most of our tournaments in the past, from the broadcast to the way they are put on, have been cookie-cutter," Burris said. "We had to start doing some different things, and to me, a few of these a year is a good idea.
"We have to realize we're not the PGA Tour. We need to be more in show business. That's what this is about."
Perhaps that is true of the Champions Tour in general, but was it necessary in Tampa Bay? Depends on your perspective. The tournament was fine as it was, but without Outback there might not be a tournament. Any new organization is going to want to do things its way.
And remember, this is a company that found a way to turn a fried onion into a corporate staple.
"The new format doesn't affect me," said Champions Tour player Dana Quigley, who hasn't missed a tournament in six years. "I play with amateurs every day of my life. The other guys, they'll get used to it. It'll be fun. I think the players, once you get down to business and your score counts, it's fine.
"The winner will say it's a great format and the losers will say it's a terrible format. ... If that's what it takes to have a golf tournament there, let's do it."
