Sports

Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2009

Champions eager for Coast tournament

BILOXI — Mike Stevens is the president of the Champions Tour and has spent his entire professional career in golf. He came to the Coast on Tuesday to promote the inaugural Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic, which will unfold in late April at Fallen Oak.

Tournament officials, prominent Champions Tour golfers and assorted corporate representatives turned out Tuesday afternoon for a press conference at the Beau Rivage, on the hotel’s 27th floor, no less.

“I’ve done a lot of press conferences ... but I’ve never done one like this,” Stevens said. “Standing on a roof looking over at the Gulf of Mexico. And there’s a casino downstairs… You’re going to like this, boys.”

Stevens referred to the Champions Tour players, who have all reached their 50th birthday after playing on the PGA Tour. Loren Roberts, who won this year’s Charles Schwab Cup on Sunday in Sonoma, Calif., and Hal Sutton, a 14-time winner on the PGA Tour, including the 1983 PGA Championship, were on hand for the event.

“Fallen Oak carries a pedigree that we’ve all heard about,” Roberts said. “We hope to put on a great show for you next year at the tournament. We’re thrilled to have the Habitat for Humanity involved.”

Anthony Topazi, the president and CEO of Mississippi Power as well as the chairman of the Gulf Coast Business Council, pointed out that the Mississippi Gulf Coast Resort Classic will have some unique qualities.

“We won’t have one single sponsor, we’ll have a consortium,” Topazi said. “Our goal is for this to be the premier event of the Champions Tour. We may have been hit with the world’s worst natural disaster (with Hurricane Katrina), but the message is we’re open for business.”

The tournament will donate its charitable earnings to Habitat for Humanity, and it will be a three-day, 54-hole event that will be televised by the Golf Channel. The Bruno Event Team, which has managed PGA and Champions Tour events over the years, will manage the tournament, with responsibilities including sponsorship sales, marketing, volunteers and operations.

Potential volunteers are invited to inquire about those duties at the tournament’s web site, mississippigulfresortclassic.com. Bruno’s Event Team president Gene Hallman said single-day prices have not yet been established for the tournament, but that children age 15 and under will be admitted free of charge.

“These guys are entertainers. They want to play before big crowds,” Hallman said.

Sutton, 51, said there is one basic difference between the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. Noted PGA players Corey Pavin, Paul Azinger and Fred Couples will be eligible for Champions Tour events for the first time next year.

“The thing that makes the Champions Tour different… No one is really defining their career anymore,” Sutton said. “At this stage, we’re all enjoying life. We’ll do our best to get all the best players here, and we’ll see you in April.”