Bob Hope made golf cool.
He brought the biggest of names to Palm Springs to help promote golf and the PGA Tour.
This week we get yet another one of those “title sponsors” on what used to be The Bob Hope Desert Classic then other Bob Hope Classics with a sponsor’s name trailing Hope’s.
This first of four west coast swing coast events and it starts with this 60-year-old son of “The Hope.” The PGA Tour now calls it The American Express. Should be called a search for name players.
This tournament started 60 years ago as The Palm Springs Desert Golf Classic then from 61-64 it was The Palm Springs Golf Classic. In 1965 Bob Hope stepped up and the rest is history. The biggest names in show biz showed up. The biggest names on the PGA Tour showed up. Bob Hope and Arnold Palmer were a marketing force. Presidents played in this one.
Now Phil Mickelson is your official host and with Lefty turning the big Five-Oh-No this year, many are wondering if there’s anything left in old Lefty’s gas tank.
Biggest names still in their prime showing up this week are Rickie Fowler and Tony Finau but other than those guys the pickins are slim — Kevin Kisner, Paul Casey, Francesco Molinari? Good thing Rickie’s there.
What this event will give us is another overdose of slow play. The tour players are slow enough on their own. This one has amended the old format and now it’s one amateur with one pro — following the lead of the old Crosby — now the AT&T.
We’ve left the wind and rain of the Hawaiian Islands in the rearview mirror and the California desert should offer a lot of good weather relief and more birdies.
Courses used this week center around the Stadium Course at PGA West. The design by the late Pete Dye will be the site of Sunday’s final round, teams will play it twice. Other venues are the Nicklaus Tournament course and LaQuinta. Typically the scoring is really, really low at the short LaQuinta layout.
Bob Hope is long gone but hardly forgotten.
He was one of golf’s great ambassadors and the guy certainly knew how to deliver a punch-line.
It was a much simpler time back then, the money wasn’t huge and players were grateful to rub elbows with Hope and his friends.
Now all the big names are over in the Middle East, performing in front of Emirs, Sheiks and Sultans, paid millions just to show up.
Not sure Bob Hope would have been on board with that.
2 Comments
baxter cepeda
It may seem the Sand King’s are taking all the stars from the Hope. But the lack of stars in theCali desert is more attributed to a surplus of events across the globe; at a time most established tour pros would rather still be resting and preparing.
It’s not like Abu Dhabi has a ton of big names, sure a few.
And as much as a cool mill seems, the appearance fees have little to do with some big names heading way over there; they are simply competing in a big Euro event.
The event this week truly is a good event; on a good golf course constantly improving.
Surely 3$ million still got tigers attention but he is wisely fighting that urge. That discipline should pay off this year for Tiger.
Tom Edrington
Great observations; I see they grew some nice juicy rough in Dubai!