What first began in 1952 as the San Diego Open, played at the San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista, CA, is now one of the most respected PGA Tour events. Now played at San Diego’s Torrey Pines golf course, this year’s Buick Invitational, otherwise known as the Century Club of San Diego Invitational, will take place from Jan. 25-31, and tickets are going fast, so you’ll want to secure your spot today.

The Buick Invitational has taken place at the prestigious Torrey Pines, located in the La Jolla area of San Diego, since 1968. Since that time, the tournament has continued to grow in size and status, and recent tournament winners include last year’s Nick Watney (the first player in his 20’s to win on tour), and Tiger Woods from 2005-2008.

Curious what this year’s Buick Invitational has in store, and what days feature the must-attend events? Here, courtesy of the Buick Invitational Web site, is the tournament’s week-long lineup:
Monday, Jan. 25 (Admission Free)
• Practice rounds for PGA TOUR players
• Sycuan Resort Pro-Am, South Course, starting at 10:30 a.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 26
• Practice rounds for PGA TOUR Players
• 12 p.m. Military Appreciation Luncheon
• 3:30 p.m. Junior Clinic, #4 North Course
Wednesday, Jan. 27
• Allianz Global Investors Wednesday Pro-Am, North and South Courses, starting at 6:42 a.m.
Thursday, Jan. 28
• Opening Round of the 2010 Century Club of San Diego Invitational, North and South Courses, starting at 8:30 a.m.
• Opening Ceremonies, 1st Tee South Course, starting at 7:30 a.m.
• The Golf Ball, Stingaree (Downtown San Diego), starting at 7:00 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 29
• Second Round of the Tournament, North and South Courses, starting at 8:30 a.m.
Saturday, Jan. 30
• Third Round of the Tournament, South Course, starting at 8:30 a.m.
Sunday, Jan. 31
• Final Round of the Tournament, South Course, starting at 8:30 a.m.
• Awards Ceremony on the 18th Green
• Boys & Girls Clubs of San Diego Golf Tournament, North Course, starting at 7:00 a.m. & 12:30 p.m.
In addition to providing a great week of golf entertainment, the Buick Invitational also raises an enormous amount of money for local charities. In 2009, the tournament raised $2.3 million, which benefitted more than 200 San Diego-based charity organizations and schools, thereby bringing the total amount raised since 1968 to $18 million.

Tickets are now being sold online, which is a much easier (and less expensive) way to see the tournament than purchasing tickets at the gate. Individual season badges, good Tuesday through Sunday, $105; daily tickets, Tuesday, $16; daily tickets, any day Wednesday through Sunday, $26; senior discount daily tickets, any day Tuesday through Sunday, $16; season preferred parking pass, good all week, Tuesday through Sunday, $90.

For more information on the tournament schedule, parking or ticket prices, visit http://www.buickinvitational.com.

Written by Amy Strand

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2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open Tournament Chairman David Rauch announced today that Billy Mayfair will receive the first sponsor exemption for the 2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open. Rauch and the tournament host Thunderbirds will hand out a total of eight sponsor exemptions for the tournament, scheduled to be played at the TPC Scottsdale, February 22 – 28.

“Billy Mayfair is one of the most well-liked and respected professional golfers in the world and has been a great supporter of our event,” said Rauch. “His streak of consecutive Phoenix starts is remarkable and one we are happy will continue at the 2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open.”

Mayfair has played in 23 consecutive Phoenix Opens (2010 will mark his 24th) and has earned $671,599 throughout his career in Phoenix. His 23 starts are the fourth most all-time behind Gene Littler’s 28, Tom Purtzer’s 25 and Paul Azinger’s 25. His best finish was second place at the 1995 Phoenix Open, where he lost in a one-hole playoff to Vijay Singh.

In 2009, Mayfair earned $392,068, which placed him 157th on the PGA TOUR money list. He is a five-time PGA TOUR winner and recently played in his 20th consecutive full season on the PGA TOUR. Mayfair, 43, lives in Scottsdale and is a former US Public Links (1986) and US Amateur (1987) champion. While at Arizona State he also was the recipient of the Fred Haskins Award as the nation’s top collegiate player.

The Waste Management Phoenix Open will be played February 22 – 28, 2010, at the TPC Scottsdale. The tournament host Thunderbirds have raised more than $65.9 million for charities, with more than $37.9 million generated since 2004. The 2010 edition will mark the 75th playing of the event, making it one of the five oldest events on the PGA TOUR (not including the major championships). Title sponsor Waste Management, Inc., based in Houston, Texas, is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. It is also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. The company’s customers include residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers throughout North America. For more information on Waste Management visit wm.com or thinkgreen.com. For more information on the Waste Management Phoenix Open, visit wmphoenixopen.com.

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The PGA TOUR and Fry’s Electronics announced this week that the Frys.com Open, an official event on the PGA TOUR, will be moving to CordeValle in San Martin, Calif., which is south of San Jose and north of the Monterey Peninsula. Next year’s event is scheduled for October 11-17 during the 2010 PGA TOUR season.

The Frys.com Open will be moving from its home at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale...

... to its new home at Cordevalle Golf Club in San Martin, CA.

The 2009 tournament also featured 4 aces, including a rare albatross (double-eagle) /ace combo in the same round by Nicholas Thompson, a PGA TOUR first. Cameron Beckman won the 2008 tournament in a 2-hole playoff to jump from 175 to 86 on the money list to secure his card; while former Masters champion Mike Weir won the inaugural event in 2007.

“While we’re saddened that the Frys.com Open is leaving Scottsdale, we’re quite pleased with what the tournament was able to accomplish in its three years here at Grayhawk,” said Grayhawk Golf Club’s Del Cochran. “Fry’s Electronics was an outstanding partner and we wish the tournament tremendous success.”

Gregg Tryhus, president of Grayhawk Development, echoed those sentiments.

“We’ve developed some close personal relationships with the Fry’s family,” Tryhus said. “We’re grateful they trusted us with their event for three years, and we’re confident they will have many more successful events.”

Located 30 minutes south of title sponsor Fry’s Electronics’ world headquarters in San Jose, Calif., CordeValle is an 18-hole, par-72 Robert Trent Jones, Jr. design that stretches across 7,169 yards of Northern California’s hillsides, canyons and broad meadows.

“We are very excited about moving the Frys.com Open to California and CordeValle,” said Kathy Kolder, executive vice president and a founder of Fry’s Electronics. “Grayhawk Golf Club was such a great host site and the fans in the Valley were tremendous supporters for the Frys.com Open the last three years, we can’t thank them enough.”

The Frys.com Open strives to make an impact in the community through charitable donations and in three years has raised more than $1.7 million for charities like the American Institute of Mathematics, Thunderbirds Charities and the Fore Adoption Foundation.

The Frys.com Open is part of the PGA TOUR’s Fall Series and features a full-field (132 players), four-day tournament with a $5 million purse and $900,000 payout to the winner. For more information go to www.frysopengolf.com.

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Bringing 35 years of experience on the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, Edwards has over 20 years of experience in instruction from conducting his Profile Sports corporate golf schools across the country. Joining the talented team of golf professionals at The Country Club at DC Ranch, as Director of Instruction Edwards will develop a custom instruction program for personal and small group lessons for the club’s 2009-2010 season focused on “Short Game Success.”

A native of Edmond, Okla., Edwards turned professional in 1973 and joined the PGA Tour in 1975. Having played in 40-plus major championships, Edwards earned a top-five finish at the 1974 British Open and to date has garnered more than 36 top-10 finishes in PGA Tour and Champions Tour events. Edwards has lived in Scottsdale, Ariz. for 25 years and is a member of The Country Club at DC Ranch.

“My true passion lies in sharing the knowledge and experience I have been fortunate enough to acquire through my years on the PGA Tour with golfers of all skill levels,” said Danny Edwards. “The Country Club at DC Ranch is a special place to me and I look forward to working with members and guests to add more success to their experiences on our course and the courses they play across the world.”

Offering memberships for both residents and non-residents of the DC Ranch community, The Country Club at DC Ranch is recognized as the Valley’s leading golf and social club. Located in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale, the club’s 18-hole golf course offers a traditional golf experience with unparalleled views of the Valley and desert mountains. Home to a world-class tennis and recreational pool facility, The Country Club at DC Ranch offers the ultimate lifestyle destination for couples, professionals and families with children.

For more information on membership programs available at The Country Club at DC Ranch, please call 480.342.7246.

The Country Club at DC Ranch is North Scottsdale’s premier country club, offering an exclusive, yet inviting, lifestyle, social and sporting opportunity for couples, families and professionals. Located at the base of the McDowell Mountains, The Country Club at DC Ranch reflects the history and charm of its beginnings as a desert camp cattle ranch in the early 1900s. Complete with a traditional golf course wrapped in scenic panoramic views and an extensive tennis and recreational pool facility, The Country Club at DC Ranch offers an unprecedented calendar of social events and activities for adults, families and children alike- all delivered with an exceptional level of service. A variety of membership programs for residents and non-residents are available. For more information, visit www.ccdcranch.com or call 480.342.7246.

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I, for one, am a fan of the Fairmont brand. The company’s acclaimed portfolio includes 56 world-class hotels, with plans to develop over 30 new properties in the coming years in destinations as diverse as Shanghai, The Philippines and India.

As the collection of hotels and resorts sporting the Fairmont name has grown over the past few years, so too has the company’s golf presence. Several Fairmont properties boast either their own exceptional golf facilities or connections with numerous sought-after clubs. During a stay at the Fairmont St. Andrews in late 2008, I was pleasantly surprised by the caliber of the venue’s two resort courses. The Kittocks (formerly the Devlin) and the Torrance (currently anticipating a summer 2009 reopening) hold their own among the elevated competition of historic golf at the birthplace of the game.

Recently, Fairmont began further expanding its golf reach by entering into a multi-year sponsorship agreement with PGA Tour Player and former Ryder Cup Captain Tom Lehman.

Lehman, who plans to play a full schedule of events on both the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour in 2009, will carry the Fairmont Hotels & Resort logo on his golf bag and will be making several personal appearances for the company throughout the year. Lehman will also write a monthly blog for the Fairmont Golf website (www.fairmontgolf.com), participate in the Fairmont Presidents Club newsletter and take part in an upcoming Fairmont Presidents Club Great Escape – an exclusive golf travel package offered to members of Fairmont’s Presidents Club.

Lehman and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts also have agreed to mutually assist each other in supporting the various charities with which the two parties have ties. “Having spent my professional life traveling the world, I have been a big fan of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts for a very long time. I can tell you first hand there is no one who does a better job of delivering luxury, quality and value than Fairmont Hotels & Resorts,” said Lehman. “Each of their properties is distinctive and unique, but they all deliver an exceptional level of sophistication, comfort and superior guest service no matter where you are. That’s something I value and I am very proud to now be officially affiliated with their team.”

Lehman, who joined the professional golf ranks in 1982, has five PGA Tour wins, including the 1996 Open Championship (British Open), and 19 professional titles worldwide. Lehman was also named PGA Tour Player of the Year in 1996 and was selected Captain of the U.S. 2006 Ryder Cup team. He is one of only 13 players to win on his Champions Tour debut appearance, claiming the title with teammate Bernhard Langer in the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf event in April 2009. In addition to professional golf, Lehman heads a successful golf course design firm, Tom Lehman Design.
 
To learn more, visit www.fairmont.com or call 416.874.2600.

– Nichole Brophy, Golf Editor 

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Of all the professional golf tournaments Tiger Woods could have selected to stage his colossal return to the game and his continued and inevitable domination over the sport – he chose Arizona. The Arizona-hosted World Golf Championships- Accenture Match Play Championship will be Tiger’s first competitive tournament since his U.S. Open victory at Torrey Pines last June. Having spent the past eight months rehabbing his knee, anyone with even the mildest interest in golf is curious about his condition and quality of play upon his return.

While the golf world is abuzz with the release of the news just a few hours ago, it is especially meaningful to Arizonans and even more so to Tucsonans, who I am sure are now re-working their plans for February 26- March 1 to accommodate some Tiger-watching time.

Adding yet another dimension to the return of golf’s mega-watt star is the fact that the Accenture Match Play will showcase the world’s top talent on the ultra-fresh fairways of the Ritz Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain in Marana, Arizona. Revealed to the public a little over a month ago on January 17th, the fairways at Ritz Golf Club are primed and prepared to stage the most-anticipated tournament of the 2009 season so far. Tiger’s presence there is just icing on the cake. I imagine tournament coordinators are toasting to Tiger as I write.

Also in the field will be Camilo Villegas and Anthony Kim, the two young guns who have taken advantage of Woods’s absent status. Aside from Tiger, I’ll be watching out for Rory McIlroy, the 19-year-old Irishman, who enjoyed victory at the Dubai Desert Classic earlier this season and is currently ranked 16th on the Official World Golf Rankings. Three-time Major champion Padraig Harrington, also an Irishman and ranked 3rd on the World Golf Rankings, will be onsite at Accenture as well. And the field also includes Sergio Garcia who has yet to play on American soil this season while instead concentrating on several European Tour starts.

Of the top 64 players invited to the match-play format, 17 hail from the United States, eight each from Australia and South Africa and seven from England. Other countries represented are Colombia, Fiji, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Spain and Sweden.

www.worldgolfchampionships.com.

- Nichole Brophy, Golf Editor.

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The opening ceremonies kicked off at 7 a.m. with the Marine Corps band and a few words by Mayor Jerry Sanders, followed by a presentation of the flags and singing of the National Anthem. A few local PGA professionals including Charley Hoffman, John Mallinger, Bill Lundt, Dennis Paulson and Kevin Stadler were then introduced to cheering fans. Other notable locals, Pat Perez and Phil Mickelson, were not able to attend the opening ceremonies due to preparation for early tee times.

Although there is an obvious disappointment in the golf realm that Tiger is not able to defend his 2008 Buick title, I still got a great vibe from the fans as they gathered at the 18th green to cheer on another favorite, Phil Mickelson. Phil, considered a local by both San Diegans and Arizonans, is the only player in the field to have won at Torrey in the last decade and finished the day tied for 16th place at -2.

It never rains in San Diego, right? Wrong. Sunny skies quickly turned to dark clouds and cool breezes today, as I shivered my way back to the car. Those familiar with Southern Cal weather were prepared to tough it out and smart enough to carry a jacket. I, on the other hand, was not and did not. Fortunately, the showers held off long enough for the players to finish Round 1, but storms are making their way down the coast and are forecasted for Friday. Rain or shine, my jacket and I plan on making the trip back to beautiful Torrey Pines to The Buick Invitational this weekend to see who Tiger’s successor will be…

Written by Ashley Hall

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16th Hole at TPC Scottsdale

Like a child anticipating Santa’s arrival, I can’t wait to watch the Tour pros tee up at the FBR Open the week of Jan 26th. Yesterday, myself and some fellow media members teed up at TPC Scottsdale to play the Stadium Course in all its tournament-conditioned glory — grandstands included.  While nearly the entire course is primed and ready for the tourney, the 16th hole was what undoubtedly stole the show. As the first and only stadium golf hole on the PGA Tour, this year’s 16th is completely encircled by grandstands (in total, about 3,000 seats have been added). In addition to promoting the ultimate fan experience, the continuity around the hole will certainly contribute to a much more efficient wave. . . 

- Nichole Brophy, Golf Editor. 

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