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Editor's Last Word
Once is not enough for NW
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Paul Ramsdell
Editor |
This certainly has been the winter of discontent for anyone wanting to see the world's best golfers test themselves against courses in the
Pacific Northwest.
Time after time this winter came more disheartening news for those hoping a major championship would come back to the Northwest more than once
every 50 years.
First was the announcement in January that Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash., had lost the promised 2010 PGA Championship.
Then in February it was reported by Golfweek magazine that Olympic Club in San Francisco was the odds-on favorite to get the 2012 U.S. Open.
This was discouraging news for Pumpkin Ridge outside of Portland, which had been lobbying hard to land this big fish. The club was hoping
someday to join the West Coast rotation of U.S. Open sites that includes Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines.
While the U.S. Open was officially no more than a dream for Pumpkin Ridge, the 2010 PGA Championship at Sahalee was scheduled to be a reality -
and a reward after its successful 1998 debut on the national scene.
Now, with that championship lost, and hopes for a U.S. Open at Pumpkin Ridge fading, the only scheduled gathering of the world's best golfers
in the Northwest is the 2005 Bell Canadian Open at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club in Vancouver. After that, there's nothing on anyone's
schedule right now.
Getting major tournaments into the Northwest is difficult both north and south of the border. The last time the Canadian Open was in British
Columbia was 1966, also at Shaughnessy. That's 39 years, which is long enough, but that still doesn't match the gap between the PGA
Championships in the Northwest - 1946 at Portland Golf Club to 1998 at Sahalee, 52 years.
The U.S. Open? It's never made it north of San Francisco into this neck of the woods.
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The 1998 PGA Championship drew overflow crowds to Sahalee.
photo by John R. Johnson |
So, is there any hope out there that Tiger Woods, or even a Ryan Moore when he goes pro this summer, will ever play in competition in the
Northwest again?
There seems to be only two avenues where that can happen, and there is definitely nothing guaranteed at the end of either of these roads.
First, we can hope that Shaughnessy gets itself into a regular rotation for the Canadian Open and/or something positive develops from the
efforts to build a high-end, stadium-style championship course at Tynehead Park in Surrey, B.C., a few miles east of Vancouver.
Stephen Ross, the executive director of the Royal Canadian Golf Association, has said his association would like to bring the Canadian Open
out west more often.
Secondly, the only other thing Northwesterners can hope for is if they make sure to support every tournament now in existence in this corner
of the world, then maybe it will impress some folks back east to bring their major championships out this way.
Pumpkin Ridge and the Portland area have done well with its two U.S. Women's Opens and its U.S. Amateur, but the crowd support and corporate
dollars need to continue to be there for the U.S. Women's Amateur in 2006 as well as every year for The Jeld-Wen Tradition on the Champions
Tour at The Reserve in Aloha, Ore.
It also might help if the new Seattle stop on the Champions Tour, the Greater Seattle Classic, nets big crowds and plenty of hospitality tents
this August at the TPC at Snoqualmie Ridge.
The United States Golf Association does seem interested in bringing a high-level tournament to Sahalee sometime in the future, so whether it be
a U.S. Amateur, U.S. Women's Open or U.S. Senior Open, it could be a test to see if the Northwest is worthy of a major championship.
We've proven we are in the past, and it looks like we'll have to prove ourselves again in the future.
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