PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — From almost the exact minute the LPGA announced the ANA Inspiration was transitioning into the Chevron Championship and that the major championship would leave the Coachella Valley after next April, the emails and phone calls and text messages started flowing in with one question.
When do we get another tournament?
Relatively small crowds at the LPGA major in recent years showed a certain indifference toward the tournament, at least in terms of being on the course to watch the event in person. But there are golf fans who see the departure of the LPGA event after five decades in the desert as a chance to bring in a new event, something that might stir up more interest.
Some see a regular LPGA event as a logical next step since the desert has a great history with the LPGA dating back to an official event played in 1953 at Tamarisk Country Club. Others believe a PGA Tour Champions event makes the most sense since most of the players on that senior tour have played in the desert for years at The American Express. Still, others have asked about bringing a developmental tour, either the men’s Korn Ferry Tour or the women’s Symetra Tour, to a desert course.
It all might be a great idea. But that doesn’t mean any new tournaments are coming to the desert in the near future.
It takes more than just a wish and a hope to create a professional golf tournament out of thin air. And that’s what has to happen in the desert, a new tournament out of thin air.
Tournaments are not easy to create
For instance:
It’s easy to quickly name a dozen golf courses or more in the desert that could certainly challenge the best players in the world during a 72-hole tournament. Let the greens get a little faster, let the rough grow a little higher, add a bunker here or there and you have a tournament-caliber course. But which of those courses want to host the event? Part of the reason the LPGA major is leaving the desert is because not everyone at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage fully supported keeping the tournament. A tournament is more than a one-week investment for club members, and they can lose the use of their course for two weeks and be hassled for six or seven weeks by preparations for the tournament. The membership has to be fully on board.
The tours themselves have to see a benefit in playing in an area. The Korn Ferry Tour might be a great idea for the desert, but would it detract in some way from The American Express? The LPGA might think the desert is a good place for a tournament, but what would the dates be? How would it fit into the tour’s overall schedule? Are there businesses that will support the tournament beyond ticket sales? Is there a charity that can be involved? All questions have to have positive answers for a tournament to exist.
Some title sponsors would have to love the idea of sponsoring a tournament in the desert. If a company is going to spend millions of dollars to host a tournament, they have to be convinced there is some benefit in it for them from a hospitality or marketing standpoint. One knock against the desert is that companies large enough to host a tournament don’t call the desert home.
Someone has to want to make it happen. Not just someone who says, hey, that’s a good idea. It has to be someone, or more likely a committee of people, to do the heavy lifting and rally support and talk to the tours and a city and the county and get things done. Who are those people in the desert?
So it takes a lot more than someone saying, “Hey, a senior event in the fall makes a lot of sense in the desert,” to get a new tournament started. And it would be at least two and maybe three years away if everything started right now.
But yeah, it is still a good idea.
Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer, he can be reached at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4633. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_Bohannan. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Desert Sun.
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