Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004 | 10:01 a.m.
Adam Candee covers golf for the Sun. Reach him at (702) 259-4085 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Leave the amateurs, take the cannoli.
OK, that's not quite what the PGA tour asked the Las Vegas Founders to do with their tournament -- I'm taking a bit of license with my Clemenza here.
But the wishes of tour godfathers for Las Vegas were clear for a long time -- slice a day off the tournament, cut down from three to two courses, reduce the number of amateurs in the pro-am format and generally reinvent the tournament to make it more accessible to players, fans, sponsors and TV alike.
Those wishes are now granted.
It looks like this: Played for a $4 million purse, the Michelin Championship at Las Vegas will be a four-day event played on two courses, with foursomes containing two amateurs and two pros and a two-day cut. The host course will still be TPC at Summerlin and the second course will likely be TPC at the Canyons, although tournament chairman John Sullivan is open to creative ideas.
The Michelin now looks a lot like the tournament two weeks after it, the Funai Classic on the Disney courses in Florida. Some around the tournament hated to give up the identifying marks of a rare pro-am format that bore little resemblance to any event other than the Bob Hope.
This is change for the better, though, because that identity wasn't bringing in top players, sponsor dollars or TV ratings in recent years. Hey, the tournament showed up on the tour's schedule as "TBD" as recently as a year ago, so there was little choice but to pay some mind to that horse head in the bed.
Enough with all the morbid mafia images because this really is a happy time for the Founders. It has been more than two years since tournament director Charlie Baron and his crew could relax a bit, and they deserve the rest.
Now, with Michelin re-signed for two years of title sponsorship and the tournament format in line with the tour's requests, all is well for the immediate future of a PGA tour event in Las Vegas.
"It's allowing us to start to get back to normal and focus on the business end of the event," Sullivan said.
The Founders began this format overhaul last year, announcing a "temporary" switch from the traditional 90 holes down to the more common 72 to accommodate travel ... yeah, like the reason really matters. The point is that once this thing went from five days to four, it wasn't going back, especially after players raved about the change.
"It had just really run its course," Sullivan said of the old format.
Coordinating more than a thousand amateurs, pros and volunteers across three courses caused huge logistical headaches for the Founders. But at $7,500 a pop, it is hard to take on less amateurs when the money isn't coming from anywhere else. There's no doubting that the new format is a more expensive one with less amateurs.
After taking a loss on running the 2003 event without a title sponsor, the Founders refused to do so again last year before the Morton family improbably stepped forward with $5 million of generosity to provide at least the basics. Michelin's money, complemented by the final two years of the Mortons' commitment, helped take the shackles off the Founders' options for now.
The tire company first bought in at a cut rate in September for the 2004 event and walked away impressed enough to sign on for two more years in the inventive financing puzzle that is this event. Those 24 months probably feel like an eternity to the Founders, and Sullivan said the tournament "wouldn't be around with just the Morton money."
The tournament, even minus one day and course, becomes more expensive to operate because taking away about 280 amateur slots cuts potential income by $2.1 million. Just selling all those spots became a chore in recent years, as casino companies merged and bought fewer entries. Without them, good luck selling out.
With fewer spots to sell and a field guaranteed to improve with most of the PGA tour and top European players in San Francisco instead of Ireland the week before Las Vegas this year, supply and demand look better matched. So too do fans and this tournament.
Putting two pros in every group makes it easier for fans to follow their favorites, as does keeping them on just two courses a couple of miles apart. And getting a few more favorites into the field is a must, so the format change could be a boon in drawing players.
"It certainly won't make it less attractive," Sullivan said. "It can only be more appealing."
There are still factors working against the tournament, namely the horrid date of the second week in October that puts it up against baseball playoffs and football on TV, as well as keeping away players either done for the year or resting for the year-end money swing through Florida. The godfathers aren't about to budge on that one anytime soon.
But by finally changing to a format that is friendlier to all involved -- now that it's affordable -- at least our local PGA tour stop won't be stuck in front of the tollbooths for a while.
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