Hope tourney to get 3 new courses in ‘06

The 45-year-old Bob Hope Chrysler Classic will get a face lift in 2006 when three new courses will come into play, two of them designed by Arnold Palmer.

After announcing last month that Indian Wells Country Club was being dropped from the Hope rotation beginning next year, tournament officials said Tuesday that in 2006 it would add the SilverRock Ranch in La Quinta and an as-yet unnamed course that is owned by the H.N. & Frances C. Berger Foundation of Palm Desert.

Palmer’s company is the course architect for both layouts, which are under construction and expected to be in play by early next year.

According to John Foster, a member of the executive board of the Hope tournament, SilverRock Ranch and the Berger property course will alternate as hosts of the tournament, which began in 1960 as the Palm Springs Golf Classic and is played over four courses.

“For years, we’ve been looking at the future and how we were going to approach it,” Foster said. “This is a big change, but it is a change that will last for decades into the future.”

Foster said the Hope tournament had a 40-year agreement to stage the event at the Berger property and a 15-year deal with the City of La Quinta and mutual options for another 15 years for SilverRock.

Formal approval for what would be the Hope’s third new venue for 2006, a Jack Nicklaus-designed layout at Indian Wells called Toscana, is expected this week. Representatives will meet with city officials on Thursday night.