Mike Weir and Stephen Ames are paired with Fred Funk when the Heritage Classic gets under way tomorrow. David Hearn is also in the field..
Will this be the last year for this great tournament ?
Steve Wilmot has been the Tournament Director at the Heritage for all the years I have been covering it, but garrulous old Arnie Burdick has been my connection to the Heritage and the guy I would bring on our Fairways Golf show for the last 15 years. Arnie has been the Media Director but now just volunteers and I know he is worried that this will be his last year, as they are playing without a sponsor for the first time since Arnie won the inaugural event in 1969, then Bob Goalby on 1970.
Since then it has been called he Sea Pines Heritage Classic, the MCI Heritage Classic, the MCI Classic, The WorldcomClassic-The Heritage of Golf, the MCI Heritage and the Verizon Heritage all at the course with the lighthouse.. Harbour Town GL in SC.
"It's a tragedy, tragedy,"said Nick Price in a Golf Digest interview "I blame the top players, and you know who I mean"
Neither Tiger nor Phil have been there since 1999 and this will raise the whole issue again of Tiger or Phil (and again folks this is the weakness of the PGA tour putting all their eggs in the Tiger/Phil basket) being forced to play every tour event on a pro tennis style rotational basis.
"It's sad, really sad." Price continued. "That's one of our great tournaments. And it's one of the great courses of all time we play on our tour." When I won there I was really on top of my game, and I used every club in the bag. A lot of the golf holes today are taking strategy out of the game. You have that at Harbour Town. I really hope something can be done to save that tournament."
Bolstered by some of the European tour guys who have elected not to travel to China and Asia for the next 2 weeks, this year's field is strong by regular tour event standards
Luke Donald at #3 is the highest ranked and he is joined by Graeme McDowell, Ernie Els, Ian Poulter, Francisco Molinari, Matt Kuchar, and Jim Furyk all in the top 20. In it's glory days all the big guys, Arnie, Jack, Johnny, Tom, Bernhard, Fuzzy, Sir Nick and of course Davis Love 5 times have pulled on that cheesy Tartan blazer.
These tournaments cost at least $8m to operate, and with the economy slow to recover, in fact still reeling in some US industries, it is neither good business nor politically correct when you are slashing your staffing costs, to be spending that kind of money on a bunch of millionaire golfers.
Verizon, the communications giant who most recently sponsored the Heritage, is the main US competition for AT&T and the Q3 numbers from AT&T came out today.
"The impact of the Verizon iPhone was far more benign than even AT&T had expected", Lindner said in a Wall Street Journal interview.
"The fears of iPhone switchers did not materialize this quarter," said Morgan Stanley analyst Simon Flannery.
We only have to look at the blood letting that has taken place here in Canada with Rogers dismissing thousands of their staff for no reasons other than budgetary ones and you can see how fine the margins are, and how difficult it is to find new growth in the cut throat communications world.
Recently Farmers Insurance stepped up to save the Buick at Torrey Pines, hopefully from a golfing perspective something similar will happen to the Heritage, but since nobody seems to care about the event unless Tiger is in the field, it is less likely it will.
Bryan Angus also on twitter @mummmbles
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