Sports - Golf

Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

Champions Tour event already a hit for Coast

Champions Tour president Mike Stevens tagged the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic a “home run. A slam-dunk.’’

I couldn’t agree more with the former Penn State golfer who helped the tour play through the economic shanks of 2009.

The over-50 crowd of major winners and Schwab Cup treasure hunters will converge on the Mississippi Gulf Coast April 26 through May 2. The Golf Channel will send the sea, sand, sun and bright lights to “an estimated 81.5 million households in the United States and an additional 86 million households in 112 countries around the world.”

“We look forward to sharing our course with our community,” Beau Rivage president George Corchis said.

We look forward to sharing our community with the world.Tom Fazio’s Fallen Oak will provide the competition, and the Coast will dish out the hospitality.

Loren Roberts, the 2009 Schwab Cup winner, couldn’t believe his eyes as he drove down Beach Boulevard.

“The oak trees are so close to the water,’’ Roberts said. “It’s beautiful here.”

“We know it will impact the area,” Stevens said. “Like we saw at Cap Cana, the real estate sales went through the roof. This pure-event formula creates momentum.”

These guys are good, but more important to our community is that they’re having fun. Guys like Fred “Fun” Funk and whistling Fuzzy Zoeller know how to throw a fairway party, and the “Playground of the South” awaits with refreshments and Sharpies.

Sports Illustrated writer Damon Hack might have summed up the Champions Tour atmosphere most appropriately, “No tour does up-close-and-personal like the Champions, with its two weekly pro-ams, dinner parties, quirky personalities and overall good cheer.”

Tournament Director Mike Nieman will make the move here from Nashville this week.

“This will be a great project to be involved in,’’ Nieman said. It [Fallen Oak] will be one of the top golf courses the guys play all year.”

Anthony Topazi’s frank fervor for the event illuminated in his prediction. “The Gulf Coast Business Council has a vision of seeing the Mississippi Gulf Coast become a Tier One tourism destination. Achievement of such an ambitious goal requires that we have nationally recognized events and attractions.”

The consortium of “Gulf Coast Business Council, Beau Rivage, IP, Grand Biloxi, Island View, Hard Rock, Habitat for Humanity, Cellular South, the State of Mississippi, Roy Anderson Corp, Yates Construction, Hancock Bank and Southern Company, as well as Harrison and Hancock County’s Tourism Commissions” has scheduled tee times for Fred Couples, Hal Sutton, Bob Tway, Tom Watson, Hale Irwin and many others for the entire week.

Set the bountiful buffets of white sand, groom the Coast’s sweet Bermuda fairways and ready the autograph canvases as the artists of some of golf’s greatest moments are warming up for a down-south, pecan pie tee ball. As only Dan Hicks can say, “What a beautiful golf shot!”