By Dawn Bryant, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Apr. 27--The Grand Strand has the chance to play host to a Senior PGA Tour golf tournament next spring if it can find a title sponsor and raise several million dollars, the same hurdles that caused the area to lose the tour's championship last year.
Area leaders have until next month to pledge about $3 million, the estimated cost to bring the event to the Tournament Players Club of Myrtle Beach from March 25 through 31, said Mickey McCamish, executive director of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday.
Senior PGA Tour media director Jeff Adams would not confirm the March date, but said the senior tour remains interested in the Grand Strand.
'Spring and fall are the possibilities,' Adams said. 'If they came up with a title sponsor we'd be very interested in trying to sort out the schedule situation.'
The tour aims to have its 2002 schedule completed sometime between July and September.
There were no open March dates on the 2001 Senior PGA Tour schedule, and the only available April date was opposite the Masters, which typically remains open.
The Emerald Coast Classic in Milton, Fla., has had a hold on a late March date, and the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf was March 29 through April 1 in St. Augustine, Fla. It was moved from mid-March the previous year.
McCamish said he has been trying to lure some national companies as a title sponsor since last week.
The slowing national economy that has caused thousands of layoffs nationwide and cut companies' advertising and promotional budgets doesn't help the already challenging task of finding a title sponsor.
'It's going to be tough,' McCamish said. 'Certainly that makes it even tougher, when people are losing their jobs.'
The S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department agreed Monday to help McCamish in the sponsorship hunt, chief of staff Ron Carter said.
PRT plans to approach companies with a state presence first, then talk to national businesses, he said.
'Finding the right fit with the right corporation is the hard part,' Carter said. 'We are going to do whatever it takes to help make this happen.'
Still, he isn't confident a match will be made.
'Hopeful is a better word,' Carter said.
The tour moved its season-ending championship from Myrtle Beach to Oklahoma City this year because of the lack of money to grow the event and the withdrawal of title sponsor IR, the equipment maker also known as Ingersoll-Rand.
The lure of money by new sponsor Oklahoma Publishing Co., coupled with lagging ticket sales in Myrtle Beach, prompted the move, which ended a seven-year run on the Grand Strand.
But the tour, which owns the TPC in Murrells Inlet, remained interested in bringing an event to its Grand Strand course.
The March tournament is more appealing than the November championship, which was plagued by less-than-par weather, McCamish said.
It also occurs at a time when more tourists are in town, which could produce more ticket sales, he said. The 2002 tournament McCamish is pursuing is scheduled during Easter weekend, the second-busiest tourism holiday on the Grand Strand.
'Spring is the perfect time,' McCamish said.
McCamish talked with the tour a few weeks ago about bringing a September tournament here from Atlanta, but the timing during the heart of hurricane season was a concern.
Finding the money to have the tournament by the fall also would have been a challenge, McCamish said.
'I don't think this will be the last opportunity,' McCamish said. 'We'll get one, it's just a question of timing.'
A group of business representatives from North Myrtle Beach to Georgetown pledged $1.5 million in December in a failed effort to keep the championship from moving.
'There's a realization that we all have to contribute to make professional sports work,' McCamish said.
The Grand Strand has lost three major sporting events in the last year as more communities are trying to cash in on the $26 billion sports tourism business. In addition to the Senior Tour Championship, the Kathy Ireland Greens.com LPGA Classic moved to Los Angeles after four years in Murrells Inlet, and Myrtle Beach Speedway lost its NASCAR Busch Series race after 13 years.
The losses have made the community more aware of the dollars those events bring to businesses, McCamish said.
And the national TV exposure the events provide is needed as locals deal with the oversupply of 117 golf courses, he said.
Sun News staff writer Alan Blondin contributed to this report.
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(c) 2001, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
