Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: LVI purse to increase to $2 million

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1997 | 11:17 a.m.

The Las Vegas Invitational, already among the PGA Tour's richest regular-season events, will join some exclusive company in 1998 when its expected purse will reach $2 million.

As a result of a new television contract reached by the PGA Tour and the networks, LVI officials will learn today how much of that wealth will spread to their tournament.

"We'll know more (today) ... but there is a good probability that we'll be at $2 million next year," said LVI tournament manager Charlie Baron. "We have already been to two meetings, the regular tour and the senior tour, and we've got some meetings (today) with the tour.

"What the tour has done is they made an overall presentation at the annual meeting and now they're meeting with each of the individual tournaments and (today) is our day. They'll come in and give us more of the details ... on what's happening with the TV package and World Golf Tour and all of that."

The LVI offered a $1.8 million purse this year -- a record for the 15-year-old tournament -- and was one of the five highest-paying official PGA Tour events, excluding the four majors.

"The tour is growing and we're growing right along with it," Baron said.

The LVI will not, however, be the lone tournament to see its purse increased in 1998, according to Baron.

"The West Coast swing is getting some financial support from a series sponsor and they're going to put more money into the purses, so I think you're going to see the purses really jump on the West Coast events like Phoenix and San Diego and Pebble Beach," Baron said.

"The series sponsor is designed to get the tour started a little bit earlier in the year -- some people think the tour starts at Doral in March but it actually starts in January on the West Coast."

The 1998 LVI is scheduled for Oct. 14-18 at three local courses. The Tournament Players Club at Summerlin again will serve as the home course. An announcement on which two courses will be used during the first three rounds of the tournament will be made after the first of the year.

The Las Vegas Country Club and the Desert Inn Golf Club served as the satellite courses this year.

* ANDERSON HONORED: UNLV sophomore Jeremy Anderson was named the College Golf Foundation's Rolex College Golfer of the Month for November. Anderson posted a 67.67 stroke average in November, winning all three of his matches at the Rolex Match Play Championships, which UNLV won, and capturing the individual title in the Golf World Invitational in Hilton Head, S.C. Anderson finished the fall season with a team-leading 72.27 scoring average and is ranked No. 9 in the nation in the MasterCard Collegiate Golf Rankings. "It's a great honor for Jeremy and he certainly deserves it," said Rebel head coach Dwaine Knight. "He had a great month in November and that was a big win for him down there."

* Q-SCHOOL RESULTS: Henderson resident Craig Barlow was the only one of four professionals with ties to Las Vegas who earned his 1998 PGA Tour card out of this year's PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament. Four-time UNLV All-American Chris Riley shot a final-round 74 for a six-round total of 424 and missed earning his card by one stroke. Riley, however, earned a full exemption on the 1998 Nike Tour, as did former Bishop Gorman High standout Tommy Armour III. Armour missed regaining his tour card by five shots. Western High graduate Jerry Foltz posted a six-day total of 447 and earned a conditional Nike Tour card for 1998.

* NEVADA OPEN: The Nevada Open will tee off Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. at the Casa Blanca Golf Club (formerly Players Island) in Mesquite. The three-day tournament will feature shotgun starts Wednesday and Thursday at 10 a.m. while Friday's final round will begin at 9 a.m. with a modified shotgun start. Among the local professionals entered in the tournament are former UNLV All-Americans Warren Schutte and Edward Fryatt.