Golf tourney postponed

Organizers of a proposed four-day, 72-hole golf tournament that was scheduled to take place later this week at The Fairways at West Terrace golf course have decided to put the inaugural event on hold until next summer.

Citing less-than-ideal course conditions and a general lack of time to properly prepare for a first-class tournament that was envisioned, Dave Lowe, The Fairways’ director of golf operations, confirmed the postponement of the inaugural Open at West Terrace on Monday.

“The course is 90 percent there and we’re pleased with its progress,” explained Lowe, who replaced John Durgan as head of day-to-day operations at The Fairways when the course changed ownership earlier this year. “But between trying to prepare the golf course and trying to put on a golf tournament like we want, it was just too much.

“So, instead of doing it kind of willy-nilly this year, and not having what we want and not having the course exactly where we wanted it, we decided to move things back until next year.”

Back in mid-April, Lowe announced plans to stage the first Open at West Terrace July 5-8 with hopes of keeping the same feel and format as the now-defunct Lilac City Invitational, which ended its 47-year run as the region’s only 72-hole tournament when Durgan, the son of Lilac City Invitational founder Joe Durgan, was removed from his former position.

The idea, he explained, was to draw heavily from the mini-tours in California and Arizona – much like the Lilac had done in recent years – while trying to increase the involvement of local club professionals. In addition, he had hoped to add another flight for the high-handicap amateurs.

At that time, Lowe said sponsors had already pledged more than $30,000 to the proposed purse of $50,000 and that he was looking at hosting upwards of 200 competitors.

“We had a lot of people interested,” he said, “but we wanted to put on a high-dollar, first-class tournament, and with all of the changes that were taking place, there was just no way.”

According to Lowe, many of the mini-tour professionals who were originally contacted about the proposed new event have been informed about the postponement and told about the plans for next year.

“It’s unfortunate we had to do this,” said Lowe, who up until the past few weeks was still toying with the idea of putting some kind of amateur event in place. “I know a lot of people would have loved to come back and play this year, but they’ve been super understanding.”