Easley Has Dream For Classic Ex-Seahawk Hopes To Put His Local Tournament On Celebrity Players Tour

In just four years, the Ken Easley Celebrity Golf Classic has raised more than $65,000 for local charities.

But Easley, the event’s founder, wants to do more.

So the former Seattle Seahawks strong safety, with help from tournament director Ellen McNair, is exploring the possibility of turning the 54-hole event into a regular stop on the recently established Celebrity Players Tour.

“It’s something Ellen and I have talked about and something we would certainly like to bring to this area,” Easley said Friday morning while shooting a television spot promoting this year’s tournament, which is scheduled for June 6-9 at three different city-owned courses.

For the time being, the Easley Classic will stick to the format it adopted last year - a 54-hole, medal-play competition with a team best-ball event Friday and Saturday and a skins game Sunday. The first round of the tournament, which is open to all golfers with an established handicap, will be played at Indian Canyon Golf Course, with subsequent rounds at Downriver and The Creek at Qualchan.

Entry fee is $295 per person and includes three rounds of golf, carts, complimentary range balls, tee prizes, dinner on Friday and lunch following play Saturday and Sunday.

And the celebrity list includes many of the usual suspects, such as current Seahawks quarterback John Friesz and former Seahawks Efren Herrera and Jacob Green. But in the future, Easley sees that list growing to include NFL quarterbacks John Elway and Dan Marino, former All-Pro linebacker Lawrence Taylor, hockey great Mario Lemieux, former tennis star Ivan Lendl and other members of the Celebrity Players Tour, who play regularly for six-figure purses.

Easley, a 3-handicapper, joined the CPT three months ago and hopes to play on several of the 12 stops it has scheduled this summer. He would also like to bring the CPT to Spokane. But he needs to find a title sponsor to help with the more than $500,000 needed to stage a CPT event.

“Our goal is to actually turn the Ken Easley Celebrity tournament into a CPT event,” Easley said. “We’re already set up for it. We’re a 54-hole event, which the CPT requires, and we play on three great golf courses.

“And I think we’re getting to the point where we’re developing sponsor participation to the level where we can step up and attract television and some bigger sponsors to support the tournament.”

Xerox Pacific Northwest is the title sponsor of this year’s event, and Easley will once again kick in $6,000 of sponsorship money from his two Seattle-based businesses, Alderwood Motors and Makena Sports.

But Easley said a title sponsor for a CPT event would have to put up $200,000 or more.

Easley has not set a definite timetable for his ambitious venture, but if his dream becomes reality, his tournament could draw as many as 120 big-name celebrities to Spokane on an annual basis.

“We’re talking about a great deal of celebrity exposure for the area,” he said, adding that each CPT stop is guaranteed a field of at least 64 celebrities. “The golf courses around here are just beautiful, and they’re good enough (to host a CPT event).”

Proceeds from this year’s tournament will again benefit the Wishing Star Foundation and Martin Luther King Jr. Youth and Family Outreach Center.

Anyone interested in playing can pick up entry forms at any of the three participating courses, or by calling the tournament office at (509) 624-8633.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo