Source: Palm Beach (Fla.) Post
It has hosted a major championship and a Ryder Cup. It was a stage for Hale Irwin to show extended greatness. And it proved to be a predictor of future success for David Toms and Grace Park.
But The Champion course at PGA National hasn't hosted a significant tournament since the Senior PGA Championship and the Junior PGA Championship quietly left town in 2000. For almost five years, The Champ had been virtually placed into early retirement.
Now it looks like The Champ is making a comeback. Three years ago, more than $4 million was spent on renovating the course. A new management team was brought in last year and it has instituted a caddy program at the course. Finally - this would be the biggest part of the puzzle - The Champ is the leading candidate to host the PGA Tour's Honda Classic, starting either next year (if the event leaves Mirasol early) or 2007.
"When you look at the history of what's happened here, I doubt there are more prestigious golf sites in Florida that have hosted a PGA Championship, a Ryder Cup and the Senior PGA all those years," said Pat Corso, head of PGA National's new management team. "This place may not have the history of Pine Valley, but it has a panache of its own that needs to be restored and awakened."
This is not just a case of developer Llwyd Ecclestone being a golf fan. He realizes that hosting a PGA Tour event is good business, a way to bring some much-needed luster back to the resort that's struggled in recent years with its golf core business.
Actually, Ecclestone could have lured the Honda Classic, starting in 2003, but took a hard-line stance in negotiations. Now, PGA National is so eager to get the Honda event, it wouldn't charge a site fee (Honda pays Mirasol $200,000 a year to host the event).
Corso has been down this road before. In 1986, he was hired to help Pinehurst regain some of its cachet. One of the first things he did was make Pinehurst's famed No. 2 course the centerpiece of his campaign. A generation later, The Champion has become the PGA's version of Pinehurst's No. 2.
"In a place like this, you have to have a signature course, just like golfers like signature holes," Corso said. "We've built our whole ad campaign around The Champ."
The new caddy program is part of the overall restoration. Starting in December, resort guests have a caddy built into the greens fee. PGA National's members aren't required to use caddies, but Corso said about half of the members are using caddies (otherwise, carts have been restricted to the paths at all times on The Champ).
Last year PGA Tour officials twice visited the course, which was built by George and Tom Fazio in 1981 and redesigned by Jack Nicklaus in 1989, to inspect its playability. The consensus is not many changes would be required.
"I'm sure it would need some tweaking," said Nicklaus, whose company did the renovation work in 2002. "But it's a nice golf course. When we played the PGA Seniors, we never played from the back tees. There are several really strong holes. And there's space to move a lot of the tees back so you can deal with the gorilla hitters."
Bruce Zabriski, the director of golf at the nearby Ray Floyd-designed Old Palm, said he's been a fan of the course for years. "I think The Champ is a very underrated course," Zabriski said. "It's one of the best around here."
Desi Howe, who was hired from Doral to replace John Gardner as PGA National's director of golf, said the resort has taken extra steps to spruce up The Champ, such as hand-mowing greens and tees.
"We're spending the time and the money it takes to elevate a course, even though we don't have a Tour event yet," he said. "We're doing this to enhance the experience for our members and guests."
But getting the Honda Classic is crucial to Corso's long-term plans. Mirasol officials have the option of hosting the event through 2006, but the tournament could leave early if there are logistical problems such as not having enough room to stage it because the high-end development has almost been completely built.
"I've hung our hat on one thing - the Honda Classic," Corso said. "A Tour event like the Honda Classic would be like a U.S. Open for us."
Corso said he'd also like to see PGA National rebuild its relationship with the PGA of America, whose national headquarters is on the property. When the PGA of America came to PGA National in the late-1970s, Ecclestone cut a deal where the resort would host a Ryder Cup (1983) and a PGA Championship (1987).
That's not going to happen again, nor will the Senior PGA - which Irwin dominated with three consecutive wins in the mid-1990s - return. But The Champ could continue its return to prominence if the Honda Classic moves across PGA Boulevard.
"That would be a very prideful thing for Llwyd to have this tournament here," Corso said. "He's been through this before and it hasn't always worked out in his favor. It would be a great tribute to him to have a long-term successful tour event on The Champ."
