Pro Classic Heads To The Creek At Qualchan
The Pro Classic, Spokane’s annual two-day affair with selected members of the Senior Professional Golf Association Tour, is on the move once again. Both the venue and dates of this year’s event will change from 1996, according to organizer and promoter Toby Steward.
Steward said he and city officials are finalizing contract details that will move the fourth-annual Pro Classic from Indian Canyon Golf Course, where it was held for the first time last fall, to The Creek at Qualchan.
In addition, Steward said the dates of this year’s event, which originated at MeadowWood Golf Course in 1994, will be changed from Labor Day Weekend to July 20-21.
The date change, Steward explained, is the result of the Senior Tour’s decision to move its Franklin Quest Championship in Park City, Utah, up from late August to mid-July to accommodate national television coverage by ESPN. The venue change was the result of a scheduling conflict with the Northwest PGA Section’s 10th-annual Rosauers Open, which will be held July 16-20 at Indian Canyon.
Because of travel considerations for Senior PGA Tour members who participate in the event, the Pro Classic has been scheduled in the past on the same weekend as the Franklin Quest Championship, which offers its competitors easy airline connections between Salt Lake City and Spokane following Sunday’s final round.
This year, Steward said he will have to fly the senior professionals in directly from their July 18-20 Burnett Senior Classic Tour stop in Coon Rapids, Minn., for Sunday night’s welcome banquet and Monday’s pro-am and shootout events.
From here, the majority of the Pro Classic participants must jet cross-country to Boston for The Bank of Boston Senior Pro Classic pro-am event that starts Wednesday, July 23.
“We get our dates from the Senior (PGA) Tour,” Steward explained. “Basically, we have no option on when to have our event. We have it when they tell us to have it, and the only date that makes sense, as far as travel purposes are concerned, is next to the Park City event.”
Steward said he knew of the Franklin Quest schedule change last year, but had hoped the Pro Classic could remain at Indian Canyon.
“Last year the Rosauers was held a week earlier (than July 16-20) and we had been told it was going to be at the same time this year,” Steward said. “We went in thinking we could keep the Pro Classic at Indian Canyon, but it doesn’t look like that is going to work out.”
Gary Lindeblad, the head professional at Indian Canyon and host pro of the Rosauers Open, said he offered to make Indian Canyon available to the Pro Classic for Monday’s pro-am and shootout events - provided Sunday’s amateur tournament could be staged somewhere else.
“The PGA Section wanted to work with us,” Steward confirmed. “But we have three days of setup for our event. We’ve got a 5,000 square-foot tent and electronic leaderboards that come in Friday, and I couldn’t see us pounding stakes on Sunday while the PGA section pros were playing the final round of one of their biggest tournaments.”
Steward said he hopes next month to officially announce the site and date changes, the format for this year’s Pro Classic and the pros who are scheduled to compete.
Men’s clubs unite
The men’s clubs at Liberty Lake and MeadowWood Golf Courses voted recently to combine their memberships into one club.
Ronald G. Schoenberger was elected president of the combined club, which will have close to 800 members and will be known as the Liberty Lake/MeadowWood’s Men’s club.
Qualchan tournament set
The Creek at Qualchan’s 1997 MemberGuest Golf Tournament will be held Saturday, May 31, and Sunday, June 1, head professional Mark Gardner said.
The event will once again use a two-man best-ball and aggregate format and will feature a pre-tournament banquet on Friday, May 30th.
For more information, call the Qualchan pro shop at 448-9317.
, DataTimes