CHARLOTTE – It’s difficult to accurately pinpoint the exact reason why the best players in the world have been flocking to the Wachovia Championship, a newborn PGA Tour event in only its third year.
It could be the shiny, new Mercedes Benz courtesy car for every player in the field.
It might be the $375,000 Mercedes Maybach edition, complete with chauffeur, that goes to the defending champion.
Maybe its the three-man Wednesday pro-am (one pro, two amateurs) that attracts the players, all of whom dread the usual five-plus-hour, five-man pro-ams at regular events. The threesome pro-am usually runs fewer than four hours.
If not that, then maybe it’s the way the tournament committee takes care of the players’ wives during the week. This week, one of the members flew a number of wives on his private jet to Charleston, where they boarded his yacht and toured around all day, in-between shopping.
Oh, there are other baubles that go with this event, such as a Mercedes courtesy car for the defending champion’s caddie. There’s valet parking for caddies, who are used to being situated on the food chain just above the help that picks up garbage on the grounds during tournament week.
For the players, there’s free dry-cleaning and laundry service, and a barber in the locker room. There, too, is a $6 million purse with $1.08 million going to the winner.
And, if all of those things aren’t enough to attract the players, then the course itself is the clincher. The old-style Quail Hollow Club, which was re-designed by Tom Fazio in 1997, has drawn raves from virtually every player who’s been here.
It’s a philosophy – and everyone bought into it, said tournament director Kym Hougham. It’s perfection in every direction, and it all starts with the golf course.
Wherever Hougham is on the grounds during the week, he’s intercepted by players who thank him profusely for the way the event is run.
These, by the way, aren’t just the smaller-time players, either. On Thursday, for example, Phil Mickelson, who’s accustomed to a life of luxury, went out of his way to seek out Hougham and thank him.
PGA Tour players are – by many of their own admission – a spoiled lot. Courtesy cars always await them at events. Their lockers are filled with free balls and anything else they might need. But this event is over the top. If it’s possible, Hougham and his people have found a way to spoil the spoiled.
Nine of the world’s top-12 ranked players entered the field at the start of this week. Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, both playing in Europe, were the only noticeable bigs missing – and Els has told Hougham he plans on playing in the event next year.
“Everything about it was exciting to hear,” said Sergio Garcia, who began yesterday’s third round with a two-shot lead. “I felt like I was well-loved here [last year], so I was looking forward to coming back.”
One player who’ll keep coming back here as long as they let him is defending champion Joey Sindelar, the 47-year-old Tour journeyman who ended a 14-year winless drought with the victory last year.
“They have treated me like an absolute king,” Sindelar said. “I was just picked up in about a 75-foot long Maybach car with curtains in the window, and they drop you off at the door.”
Sindelar, a low-key type and more of a mini-van kind of guy, was so humbled by that service that he turned in the limo and driver for a smaller-edition Maybach of his own to drive.
“The shocker for me was coming back for press day and listening to them having nothing to do with resting on their laurels from what they’ve accomplished,” Sindelar said. “They were saying they were going to do this better and that better.”
So much better, indeed, that every player with a PGA or European Tour card will soon be jockeying for position to get in the Wachovia field.
