more photosJay Haas sends the ball flying towards the 17th green in 2007, the first year The Jeld-Wen Tradition was hosted by Crosswater Club in Sunriver.
Zac Goodwin / The Bulletin file
Pivotal year for Tradition
In its third year at Crosswater Club in Sunriver, the Champions Tour major event has an uncertain future beyond 2010
By Zack Hall / The Bulletin
Published: May 09. 2009 4:00AM PSTThis is an important year for the marriage between Central Oregon and The Jeld-Wen Tradition.
When the 2009 Tradition tees off on Aug. 20, it will mark the third of four years the Champions Tour major championship is contracted to be played at Crosswater Club, the crown jewel of Sunriver Resort’s four golf courses.
Likely, the decision to keep the tournament at Crosswater or move it elsewhere in Oregon will be made sometime before the 2010 event.
If Central Oregon is going to remain the host — and Tradition organizers have said they would like to find a permanent home for the tournament — it will have to show better than the lukewarm response the tournament has received so far.
“Those discussions will start soon, whether it’s with the PGA Tour (which owns the Champions Tour) or Jeld-Wen (the tournament’s title sponsor),” says Evan Byers, the energetic tournament director, who is in his second year in charge of The Tradition. “For Jeld-Wen’s interest and the (Champions) Tour, they have to see that the community is willing to support the event.
“This is a key year for the community of Central Oregon to show that they support it and they want it. It’s their event to keep. It’s their event to turn away.”
By at least some accounts, The Tradition appeared to make progress in 2008.
But in the end, the same attendance estimate for the week — 30,000 — was announced by management company Peter Jacobsen Sports as in 2007, The Tradition’s inaugural run in Central Oregon. And the tournament’s Jeld-Wen Tradition Foundation in 2008 donated $77,000 in net proceeds to Oregon charities, considerably less than the $500,000 it gave in 2006, the final year of the tournament’s four-year stay in the Portland area.
It has been a tumultuous winter for the tournament, starting with the ouster of Portland-based Peter Jacobsen Sports by The Jeld-Wen Tradition Foundation board and ending with the rehiring of PJS, including Byers.
The goal for Tradition organizers now will be to grow both the attendance and the tournament’s charitable donations — not the easiest task in a slumping economy. To grow the tournament, Byers is focusing on attracting more Central Oregon golf fans as ticket-buying customers, and more local businesses as tournament sponsors.
“What we need to do is try to get the community to really embrace the event as THE event,” Byers says. “We have to figure out a way to get people to come from Bend down to Sunriver to see the event. And we are working on some ideas to help do that.”
One such idea will be offered in addition to Nike Junior Day, which has been a Tradition staple on the Wednesday before the first round. This year, adults will be admitted free to Crosswater to watch Wednesday practice rounds as well as to demo Nike golf clubs.
The tournament will also get a boost in television coverage this year.
In 2007, the Golf Channel cable network aired the first two rounds of The Tradition and NBC broadcast the tournament’s final two rounds to a national audience. Last year, NBC’s commitment to the Summer Olympics put all four rounds of the tournament on the Golf Channel and left The Tradition off major national network TV. This year, though, NBC is back and is planning to once again air the tournament’s final two rounds.
The last two years, high-profile golfers such as Mark O’Meara, Nick Price, Bernhard Langer and John Cook were rookies on the 50-and-older Champions Tour. But this year, the Champions Tour rookie class lacks a truly marquee player.
Tom Lehman, who turned 50 in March, has already committed to playing The Tradition. And he could be joined by fellow former PGA Tour major champions Larry Mize and Bob Tway in Sunriver.
Funk, who has been splitting time on the PGA and Champions tours this season, is expected to return to Crosswater to defend his title. Mark McNulty, the 2007 Tradition champion, is also expected to return to join Tradition favorites such as Tom Watson, Jay Haas, O’Meara and Langer.
“We feel we’re going to have, as we did last year, a (high-profile) field,” Byers says.
The Champions Tour is awaiting perhaps its biggest-name arrival in years in Fred Couples, who has already said he intends to play a full schedule on the over-50 circuit.
The Tradition, though, will have to wait until 2010 to land the popular Couples, because the 15-time PGA Tour winner and former Masters champion will not turn 50 until this Oct. 3.
Couples will be joined by major champions Paul Azinger, Corey Pavin and Mark Calcavecchia — as well as by Kenny Perry, who won three PGA Tour tournaments in 2008 and was runner-up in last month’s Masters — in turning 50 in time for the 2010 Tradition.
For Central Oregon, the introduction of new talent for the 2010 Tradition would make for either a jolt of energy into the future or a truly grand finale.
“I hope that we can get the support from within the community,” Byers says. “Because next year is when the tour gets REALLY exciting.”
Zac Goodwin / The Bulletin file
Jay Haas sends the ball flying towards the 17th green in 2007, the first year The Jeld-Wen Tradition was hosted by Crosswater Club in Sunriver.
Anthony Dimaano / The Bulletin file
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