Spokane To Bid For Senior Pga Event Tour Officials Invite Promoter Of Successful Senior Pro Classic To Make A Proposal

Carrying the vast optimism of any promoter, Toby Steward envisioned the Senior PGA Pro Classic at MeadowWood blossoming into a full Senior Tour stop at some point in the future.

That point might be closer than even Steward could have imagined. Senior Tour officials have invited Steward to submit a proposal to host a tournament next year.

No opening exists on the current 44-event Senior schedule, but some attrition is expected.

“It’s a giant step - a giant leap,” said Steward, of Star USA promotions. “The things we’ve been working for and talking about might be happening much quicker than anticipated. We’re way past where we’d thought we’d be.”

Ric Clarson, vice president of Senior Tour administration, invited Steward to make a proposal at a Tour board meeting Sept. 19, Steward said.

The invitation carries no guarantees.

Clarson was out of his office and unavailable for comment Tuesday, but an assistant administrator confirmed the contact with the Spokane group.

This year’s second Pro Classic is Labor Day at MeadowWood, with 20 Senior pros participating.

Tony Jacklin, winner of the 1969 British Open and the 1970 U.S. Open, has been added to the field.

The one-day appearance of the pros drew nearly 5,000 fans last year, and 4,000 tickets have already been sold for this year’s event.

Landing a full-fledged tournament would require a minimum purse guarantee of $750,000, Steward said. “And the Tour adds $100,000 to that so it would be at least an $850,000 purse.”

The plan is to call in “30 or so prominent people for a meeting probably the second week of September and go over the whole proposal,” Steward said. “I believe it’s do-able. And I believe it’s better for us to get in now because the price is just going to continue to go up.”

By landing a Senior Tour tournament, golf fans in the region would benefit from a seven-day “festival of activity,” Steward said. “This could be by far the biggest event in Spokane, and the great thing is it would be on an annual basis.”

A typical tournament week includes qualifying rounds by a number of pros on Monday, shootouts and skins games on Tuesday, pro-ams on Wednesday and Thursday, and the 54-hole tournament from Friday through Sunday.

The event would likely stay at MeadowWood, Steward said.

“I think MeadowWood is the only viable course right now,” Steward said. “You get about 30 hospitality tents on the course. And if you look at all the courses in the area, MeadowWood is the only one that has the land mass that you need. There are some great courses in the area that just don’t have the land you need to do a full tour event.”

County golf director Mike Kingsley said he hasn’t been filled in on “the nuts and bolts” of the Senior Tour requirements for courses, but “we’re tickled pink we could even put a proposal together.”

Taking MeadowWood out of public use for a week is a concern, Kingsley said, “but there’s a lot of things we have to look at that we’ve never had to address before.”

The next step is to see if financial backing is there.

“The groundwork is definitely there,” Steward said. “We have the opportunity …; whether we can pull it together for next year, I don’t know.

“The thing that is nice is, Ric Clarson said they’re grooming Spokane for a Tour event and not to think this is going to be our only window of opportunity.”

, DataTimes