Tuesday, August 28, 2001
PGA Seniors get look at future course
TPC at River's Bend site of pro-am today
By John Erardi
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Some Senior PGA Tour golfers will get their first look today at the Tournament Players Club at River's Bend (on Ohio 48 in Warren County) in a pro-am associated with the Kroger Senior Classic at Kings Island. The Kroger Senior Classic moves to the TPC next year.
Today's pro-am at the TPC (7:30 a.m.) is free to the public. Among the pros playing: Jim Dent, Bob Charles, Gibby Gilbert, Gary McCord, John Schroeder, J.C. Snead and Bob Eastwood.
PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who was in town Monday, said there is nothing to keep the Arnold Palmer-designed TPC from gaining consideration some day to host a major tournament, such as the PGA Championship.
“Like any new golf course, it's going to take three or four years to fully mature,” Finchem said. “But if it's a fit enough golf course, it starts to become a candidate for some other stuff.”
Finchem said “more and more” good athletes are coming into golf at an “accelerated” rate. He called Tiger Woods the “physical model of the player of the next 20 years.”
But, judging by the numbers, athletes coming onto the PGA Tour for the next several years will continue to be mostly Caucasian. Finchem was asked about the conspicuous lack of African-American players in NCAA Division I programs, which are the predominant feeder system for the PGA Tour.
Jim Brown, the coach at Ohio State University, told The Enquirer at last May's Memorial tournament outside Columbus that he has seen only about five African-American players in 35 years of college coaching. One of those is a Cincinnatian, Kevin Hall, who is entering his sophomore season at OSU. Jackie Hall, Kevin's mother, has said she saw only two African-American players on the Division I tournament circuit last year — her son and Steve Reed, a freshman at Texas A&M.
“Job one is to create an avenue for thousands of kids to get access to the game at the youngest level (through the PGA Tour's First Tee program),” Finchem said. “Tiger started playing when he was 1 or 2. If you're going to play at the PGA Tour level, it's very rare for somebody to do it who didn't start playing the game at a very young age.”
After getting kids involved, the PGA will continue to work on ensuring that the better of those younger players “have the opportunity to play competitive junior golf,” Finchem said.
“From that will spawn the changes we are looking for. We're going to add junior programs. The first step (introducing kids to the game) is much harder. The second step will happen.”
WINNERS: Results from Monday's Marty and Joe Junior Pro-Am: Robert Johnson (Our Mother of Sorrow) shot a 32 on the front nine at Grizzly and won the Jimmy Woods Award for low net; Alex Martin (Royalmont Academy) shot a 36 and won the Miller Barber Award.
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PGA Seniors get look at future course
