O’Meara Headlines Event Exhibition Golf Fixture Relocates To Cda Resort

From venue to format to ticket prices, the Junior League of Spokane has changed everything for its 2000 golf exhibition.

Everything, that is, except the quality of the small but select field of professionals who will take part in this year’s event, which will be held Monday, June 19, at the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course.

Mark O’Meara, a 16-time winner on the PGA Tour, will headline an exhibition foursome that will also included fellow PGA Tour stars Mark Calcavecchia and Stuart Appleby and Senior PGA Tour player Hubert Green.

The participants were announced Tuesday during a news conference at the Coeur d’Alene Resort course, a pristine 6,309-yard layout that will be hosting the event for the first time.

Marnie O’Neill-McCoy, chair of this year’s event, said the decision to move from Spokane Country Club, where the first eight events were held, was based on the Junior League’s growing membership and increased involvement in volunteer work in the Coeur d’Alene area.

“We feel that the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area is becoming more and more cohesive and that it was time to include Coeur d’Alene in more of our events,” O’Neill-McCoy explained of the 18-hole exhibition, which has featured such golfing legends as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Nancy Lopez and Tom Watson in the past.

Other changes in this year’s event include a gallery limit of 1,500 - about half the number at the last exhibition in 1997 - and a dramatic jump in ticket prices to $200 per person. That price, however, will include much more interaction with the golf professionals, along with a boat ride to the course, a catered lunch and a gourmet dinner that will be served at the conclusion of the event. In addition, gallery members will be able to test their golfing skills in long-drive, putting and closest-to-the-pin competitions that will be staged during the afternoon.

“We wanted to design the event to be a new event without crowds,” O’Neill-McCoy added. “We wanted everyone to have first-class perks, we wanted everyone to feel pampered and have interaction with the pros all day long.”

O’Meara, 43, is the best-known and most successful professional in the field. He suffered through a sub-par season last year, but won The Masters and British Open in 1998, when he was named the PGA Tour’s player of the year.

Calcavecchia, 39, has won nine PGA Tour events and also captured a British Open title in 1989.

Appleby, a 29-year-old Australian, has won three PGA events since turning pro in 1992 and captured last year’s Shell Houston Open.

Green, 53, won 19 events - including the 1985 PGA Championship - on the regular tour. He won the 1998 Bruno’s Memorial Classic as a Senior Tour rookie and teamed with Gil Morgan to win the 1999 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf.

A total of 1,400 tickets will be made available to the public. Order forms can be obtained at any Spokane or Coeur d’Alene Albertsons store or by calling (509) 328-2801. The other 100 tickets will go to major sponsors of the events. And in another format change, four of those sponsors will pay an additional fee to play five holes (No. 3 through No. 7) with the pros during the exhibition.

Proceeds from the event will be used for Junior League of Spokane programs, several of which focus on foster families in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area.

Candace Dahlstrom, administrative director of the event, said her organization is looking at making the exhibition an annual event.

“… Because of what the Coeur d’Alene has been able to do for us, the hope is to have it more often,” she said.

This sidebar appeared with the story:

AT A GLANCE

Golf exhibition Date: June 19.

Course: Coeur d’Alene Resort.

Featured foursome: Mark O’Meara, Mark Calcavecchia, Stuart Appleby, Hubert Green.

Tickets: $200; order through area Albertson’s stores or call (509) 328-2801.