Golf

A tournament folds because of Tiger, and he benefits

Byron Nelson

By BOB HARIG
Published March 13, 2007

Byron Nelson

The golf icon who died last year at 94 was heavily involved in his own tournament, even in his later years. Now called the Byron Nelson Championship, the tournament started as the Dallas Open in 1944 and was won by Nelson. His name became part of the event in 1968 when it was renamed the Byron Nelson Golf Classic. The Salesmanship Club of Dallas, which runs the tournament, typically donates the most money to charity of any PGA Tour event.

Jack Nicklaus

The Golden Bear so loved Muirfield in Scotland, site of his 1966 British Open victory, that he made plans to build his own course with that name in mind. Muirfield Village near his native Columbus, Ohio, fulfilled that dream. And in 1976, the PGA Tour gave him his own tournament, the Memorial, which each year honors one of the greats in golf while being a PGA Tour version of the Masters. Nicklaus won his own tournament twice, in 1977 and 1984.

Arnold Palmer

The King discovered central Florida in the early 1960s and fell in love with a place called Bay Hill so much he bought the place. A decade later, the Bay Hill Club & Lodge became the home of his own PGA Tour event. The tournament began in 1966 as the Florida Citrus Open at Rio Pinar Palmer won it in 1971 and became Arnie's in 1979 when it was renamed the Bay Hill Citrus Classic and moved to Bay Hill. The tournament will be played for the 28th time with Palmer in charge this week, but this will be the first time it is called the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

If the PODS Championship wants to secure Tiger Woods' presence in the future, perhaps it needs to make the Tiger Woods Foundation the tournament's charitable beneficiary.

All tournaments on the PGA Tour have to be wondering about that in the wake of news that another event's proceeds will go to the near and dear foundation of the No. 1 player in the world.

While the PGA Tour was shrewd to make such a deal with Woods for the new tournament that will be played in Washington, D.C., this summer (the AT&T National replaces the International on the schedule) it does make you wonder if the tour might ever want to say enough is enough.

Woods now has three PGA Tour events that benefit his foundation. One, the Target World Challenge, is a big-money, unofficial tournament in which he donates his own prize money to the foundation. The other is the Deutsche Bank Championship, one of the three FedEx Cup playoff events leading up to the Tour Championship.

The AT&T National, however, will have Woods as tournament host. It was obvious this day was coming, just maybe not this soon. Woods, like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, was destined to have his own tournament, one that he could put his stamp on.

The Target was never going to be that event, even though it is run by his foundation. A tournament that is not part of the official PGA Tour schedule does not have the same panache. And the Deutsche Bank is a FedEx playoff event run by the PGA Tour.

The irony is that his dream became real when a tournament, the International, folded recently because its founder, Jack Vickers, said it could not be viable without Woods in the field. Tiger had not been to the Colorado tournament since 1999.

So a few weeks later, the tour puts together a deal to fill that date with an event in the nation's capital, and Woods' foundation is the charitable arm, all but guaranteeing his presence. Pretty amazing.

STALKING TIGER: Woods has skipped five opportunities to play in the PGA Tour event at Innisbrook, despite it being 100 miles from his Orlando home. He did play the Copperhead course in 1996, a few months after he turned pro, in the JCPenney Classic. If he is basing his decision on that week, he is remembering a far different course. It was set up far easier because of the format, with the men's tees moved up considerably. The greens were not nearly as firm, the rough not as high.

If Tiger ever asks, his friend Charles Howell will give the place a good recommendation.

"I think he would like it," Howell said. "He likes hard golf courses, where you have to drive it in the fairway, where par is a good score . ... It's on his radar now."

In this case, Woods comes in at No. 4 on PGA Tour list

When it comes to hosting golf tournaments, Woods is following other legends.

[Last modified March 13, 2007, 00:01:30]