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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > June > 09 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USLife will go on without AT&T Classic
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you’re a major league city, and if you want to remain that way, you never want to lose things.
Things such as the AT&T Classic on the PGA Tour, not so much.
With the news on Monday of that tournament’s death at 41, most around Atlanta will go on with the rest of their lives. We’re talking about losing things within these city limits such as Super Bowls. Well, those things don’t count so much, either, because neither Atlanta nor any other cold-weather climate should have those things in February.
Let’s move on to things such as the men’s and women’s versions of the Final Four, which always have a splendid chance of returning to town. Then there are other things such as the SEC football championship game, which makes an annual stop at the Georgia Dome. There also are occasional trips here by the basketball tournaments of the SEC and the ACC, and we’ve had All-Star games for the NBA, NHL and baseball. We used to have an LPGA event each year, along with one involving professional tennis. We even had a summer Olympics.
We won’t have that PGA Tour tournament anymore in Duluth each May, and you may yawn for several reasons. First, its departure was inevitable since its officials couldn’t find new sponsorship in this brutal economy. Plus, we still have that little golf gathering each spring among the dogwoods and the azaleas to the east. Not only that, the best of the best still will come to Bobby Jones’ old place at East Lake each autumn for The Tour Championship. And it’s not as if the wonderfully challenging course at Sugarloaf will be invaded by tumbleweeds any time soon.
Indications are that Sugarloaf will begin playing host to a Champions Tour event next year. Not that anybody cares. That’s because nobody cares about the Champions Tour that once featured old stars but has increasingly featured no stars.
As for the future, the egos of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson never will let them admit to becoming golfing fossils (i.e. Champions Tour material) after their 50th birthdays. We’re seeing as much now with Nick Faldo and Greg Norman, both capable of drawing crowds, but both preferring to defer Champions Tour duty to the underwhelming likes of Mark Wiebe, Denis Watson and Lonnie Nielsen.
It’s just that the Champions Tour for Sugarloaf is better than nothing.
I guess.
“You know, it’s really hard to say. Until you try it and go out and do a little research, you really don’t know,” said Dave Kaplan, who spent nearly three decades as an official for this suddenly defunct PGA tournament that once was sponsored by Georgia Pacific before BellSouth/AT&T came along. “At Sugarloaf, we certainly have a client base as far as fans and companies that are willing to do hospitality. Now whether they are willing to come in and do it for a Champions Tour event, who knows?”
This is what we do know: The AT&T Classic had to go.
There were just too many “AT&T” entities on the Tour (four, to be exact) for the budget-conscious folks at that company to handle. There also was timing. Once the Atlanta event was moved two years ago from its chilly spot in March to the warmth of May to the delight of AT&T clients, it lost a slew of prime golfers. It was an inconvenience to the big boys since it was slotted between the Wachovia and Players Championship at the start and the Colonial and Memorial at the end.
“Obviously, having done this for 26 years, it’s part of the fabric of my life,” Kaplan said. “It is a bit of a surprise that it’s been [eliminated], but it’s business. I know the sun is going to come up tomorrow, and I feel the worst for our volunteers. There are people who have worked in this tournament for all 40 years. But it’s not like it’s the end of the road. It appears … that we still have an opportunity to do that Champions Tour event.”
Whatever that means.
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Comments
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By RW Fuller
June 9, 2008 7:28 PM | Link to this
After the buying of Bell South, ATT promised to keep the commitment to Children’s Health Care Of Atlanta in Atlanta. It shows the class of ATT. Bring back Bell South and the Classic. They were both “Class acts” and will be missed.
By LOOPER
June 9, 2008 8:07 PM | Link to this
I was a volunteer when it was still just the Atlanta Golf Classic before companies started to sponsor the pga golf tourny’s. I can’t blame AT&T but I find it ubsurd that one of our fortune 500 companies could not step up. Granted I hated when it was moved to sugarloaf because that is a gallery nightmare and the players and caddies hated it. I have been fortunate enough to attend the tourny at the National and downtown many times but not many people can. They rely on the regular tour stop to see the players in person. Forget the Champions Tour. Those were the guys I was able to walk the fairways of the Atlanta Country Club. Nickulas, Watson, Crenshaw to name a few. It is just sad to think that for the first time since 76’ I will not have a regular tour stop to go to. But maybe one day ATL will find a great sponsor and a much better gallery friendy golf course.
By noel malone
June 9, 2008 8:10 PM | Link to this
This is sad. Atlanta is dimished as a sports town, regardless of what you say. Bobby Jones’ town without a pro tourney - shame!
By chris
June 9, 2008 8:55 PM | Link to this
I worked for Dave Kaplan for ten years at the tournament while it was at Atlanta country club and this is like a death to me. Not having a PGA event in Atlanta. that just does not seam to be true. I just hope someone will come forward and and bring the tournament back.
By Matt B.
June 9, 2008 9:22 PM | Link to this
Sugarloaf can’t compare to the other prestigious golf courses in Atlanta, namely Atlanta Athletic Club and East Lake Golf Club. When the pros come to these clubs, the tournaments mean something (U.S. Open & PGA Championship, Tour Championship, respectively).
The AT&T never meant anything. It was always a off-week tour stop that most of the stars would skip to prep for bigger tournaments in the following weeks. Agreed, not a big loss, but it is a shame in that Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta will suffer because of this decision.