May 19, 2004
HOPE CLASSIC EXPECTED TO ADD 3 NEW COURSES
RANCHO MIRAGE -- In the most sweeping changes in its 45-year history, the Bob Hope Classic is poised to add three new courses to the Coachella Valley’s PGA Tour stop in 2006.
SilverRock Resort in La Quinta and the Berger Foundation course at Cook Street on the north side of Interstate 10 will join the golf tournament in 2006, as first reported Tuesday morning on thedesertsun.com.
In addition, the Indian Wells City Council will consider Thursday a plan to play the Classic at Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells starting in 2006.
All three are under construction and will open in the next eight months.
Classic officials said the status of the four 2005 courses -- the Palmer Course at PGA West, La Quinta, Bermuda Dunes and Tamarisk country clubs -- was under discussion for 2006 and beyond.
Officials said the changes and long-term deals with the new courses are designed to create better, more fan-friendly venues and secure the tournament’s future.
The deal with the city of La Quinta, approved by a 5-0 vote by the City Council Tuesday, is 15 years, and the deal with the Berger Foundation course is 40 years.
"The format and the name will be identical," Classic executive board member John Foster said. "The history will be all the same. What we will have is more exciting venues to help folks enjoy the tournament."
The announcement of the new courses, which tournament officials say has the full support of the PGA Tour, comes one month after the tournament dropped Indian Wells Country Club from the rotation of the five-day, four-course event after 45 years.
Classic officials, PGA Tour agronomists and even officials for ABC-TV, which broadcasts the Classic, will have input into the construction of the layouts, Foster said.
"We brought the tour in. They understand exactly what we are doing, the future," Foster said.
The SilverRock course, developed by the city of La Quinta, has been the main focus of speculation about a new course joining the Classic since Indian Wells Country Club was dropped.
The yet-to-be-named Berger Course, being developed as part of a resort on unincorporated land near Palm Desert, will join SilverRock as a host course.
Those courses will alternate being the site of Sunday’s pro-only play after four days of pro-am play.
They also will be the first courses without residential developments in the Classic, and the first since the TPC Stadium Course at PGA West in 1987 that allow some form of public play.
"It looks to me like the Bob Hope Classic has a chance to be something for the community it hasn’t been, and we have a chance to participate in that," La Quinta Councilwoman Terry Henderson said.
Toscana, a residential golf development in Indian Wells, will be played each year but will not be a host course.
The new courses will strengthen the Classic’s association with some familiar names.
SilverRock Resort and the Berger Foundation course are both designed by Arnold Palmer, a five-time winner of the Classic and part-time La Quinta resident.
Toscana is designed by Jack Nicklaus, winner of 18 major championships and the champion of the 1963 Hope tournament.
Officials said the wave of course changes was not sparked by the death last July of tournament host and namesake Bob Hope.
"Opportunities have jumped into our lap that we could not ignore, that we felt were very important to the future," Foster said. "If this would have happened five years ago, we would have done it."
"If Mr. Hope were alive today, we would be doing exactly the same thing," board member Steve Morton said.
The new courses could be in stark contrast to La Quinta, Bermuda Dunes and Tamarisk country clubs, which were all built in the 1950s. Tournament officials are aware that so many new courses might cause some players to consider skipping the Classic for at least a year or two.
"What we are showing the players is that we have listened to some of their comments about the courses," said Michael Milthorpe, tournament director of the Classic. We’re now bringing on three modern-day courses. What we’ve asked the architects and what they have conveyed to us is we want golf courses that have green surfaces that are similar to what we are playing now. They obviously know the conditioning, that the courses the players play here are the best they play all year."
Milthorpe and the executive board members said they will try to make the new courses available to tour players from the time they open in late 2004 or early 2005 until the 2006 Classic, both to have the players become familiar with the courses and to get feedback from players on the new designs.
The new venues could solve other problems.
In recent years, the Classic has struggled with space and parking problems at their traditional courses, even dropping Bermuda Dunes and Indian Wells as host courses.
A lack of parking space has forced the Classic to centralize parking at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, then shuttle fans to the four courses, costing $200,000 to $300,000 a year, Foster said.
The savings on parking costs as well as site fees to the Classic from the new venues should allow the Classic to significantly increase donations to charities.
The city of La Quinta will pay the Classic $100,000 a year plus $10 for every round over 20,000 played annually at SilverRock. Site fees from the Berger Foundation course and Toscana were not disclosed.
The Classic has donated $1.5 million a year to desert charities, including Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, since 1998. The donations from the 2004 event should take the Classic over $40 million in donations since the event debuted in 1960.
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