THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 12, 1995 TAG: 9510120527
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
That's hardly Arnie, Chi Chi, Lee or Jack tromping along Greenbrier Country Club's fairways today through Saturday.
At a Senior Series tournament, the most a host can hope for is a visit from somebody, anybody, who has even one PGA Tour victory from any decade.
And for somebody to pay money to come watch.
Such is life on a satellite circuit that is not affiliated with the PGA Tour and has none of the glamour of the real Senior PGA Tour.
``Yes, name recognition is the first thing that comes up when I talk to people,'' says Scott Jaccard, general manager of Greenbrier Country Club, which has welcomed a slew of anonymous over-50 pros onto its turf. ``If you're a golf enthusiast, you look beyond that.''
It's low-profile, but the Senior Series has its place, Jaccard says. Top-notch golf, he says, will be played during the $100,000 event - $15,000 to the winner - sponsored by Global Sport Management, the tour's creator out of Winston-Salem, N.C.
Perhaps a few hundred people, very optimistically a couple thousand, might venture to find out. A good total draw for a Senior Series tournament with decent advance notice is maybe 7,000.
The Greenbrier event was picked up and put on in three weeks after a Roanoke course backed out, so there's no telling how small Greenbrier's crowds will be.
It's not the 2-year-old Senior Series' fault that it's not the Senior PGA Tour. It is what it is - a place where aspiring Senior Tour players sharpen their skills in hopes of qualifying for the genuine article.
Somehow obtaining one of those golden Senior PGA Tour stops is part of what Jaccard calls Greenbrier's ``five-year plan.''
He is careful not to denigrate the Senior Series when he admits this, probably because he knows the odds of trading up are astronomical.
There's a three-city waiting list to start a Senior PGA Tour event on an already-filled schedule, a Senior PGA Tour executive tells me. Purses for new events start at $800,000, but the three that would be ready to tee off tomorrow have $1 million-plus to offer.
That doesn't include at least another million in expenses and setting up a year-round office to organize and market the thing.
Jaccard says he thought he had a sponsor lined up last year with which to make a preliminary bid to join the waiting list. But the unnamed sponsor bailed out.
``When you go to underwrite $1.5 million, it's not an easy thing to do,'' Jaccard says.
For Jaccard, the upshot of diving back into the tournament business - Greenbrier last hosted an LPGA event in 1992 - is ``getting some people back to the table who haven't been involved in golf for a few years. Maybe that can spark some interest.''
Until an open checkbook supports that interest, though, plenty of wiggle room ought to be built into Jaccard's noble five-year vision.
``I don't want to take anything away from what we're doing here,'' Jaccard says. ``If we can get a (Senior PGA) tournament it's going to be great. If not, that's OK, too.
``Trying to get a tour event is a major, major undertaking. We could be happy with this event for several years.''
In the meantime, Chi Chi and the boys will continue to take their popular act to such Senior PGA Tour showplaces as Midway, Pa., Mason, Ohio, and Coon Rapids, Minn.
Say it again: Life here in the minors ain't always easy. MEMO: Tickets for the Senior Series are $10 per day. For information call
549-1440.
by CNB