ROGERS - The 17th hole at Pinnacle Country Club was billed as potentially becoming the loudest hole in golf before the start of last week’s LPGA Northwest Arkansas Championship.
The inaugural attempt to become louder than the Skybox Village around the 16th hole at the Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour fell short, but that didn’t mean the 17th-hole experience or the overall tournament were failures, officials said.
No attendance figures were kept for tournament week which included a Monday qualifier, a Tuesday practice round, pro-ams tournaments on Wednesday and Thursday, and the actual tournament which started Friday. There were also many charity events held offsite throughout the week.
“We don’t count people because it’s hard to get an exact count the way people get on Pinnacle,” Allen said. “This is the seventh year, and it’s gotten better in all respects. From our charitable impact, the crowds, the reaction we are getting from sponsors, the reaction we got from players, the one thing I am hearing most consistently is what a big event this has become in Northwest Arkansas, and that’s the real gratifying thing.”
Hardy said landscaping around the hole prevented stadium seating from being constructed all the way around, but people filled in the gaps on the ground.
This year, in order to promote more birdie opportunities, and thus more cheers, the 17th tee box was moved from 190 yards where players were hitting fairway woods to about 130 to 150 yards. Using a 6-hybrid, Uehara’s ace found the bottom of the hole on the fly.
“We think it worked well,” tournament chairman Jay Allen said. “We’re going have to make it bigger. We’re already talking about making it bigger for spectators and sponsors.”
The players appeared to buy into the experience, as many were quick to open up their bags and toss souvenirs to the crowd after finishing the hole. Some even stopped to sign several autographs on the path leading to the 18th tee box.
“From the LPGA tournament standpoint, we are very focused on making sure our sponsors get out of a tournament what they want, and I think the perfect example of why this tournament continues to improve is the 17th hole,” said Mike Scanlan, the tour’s media communications director. “The players bought in to make that hole different. It’s gotten a lot of attention not just in the market, but from viewers on Golf Channel and from all over the world. I think the 17th hole is an example to the effort to make this tournament bigger.”
The tournament, which was won by world No. 1 Inbee Park in a playoff over So Yeon Ryu, was the seventh LPGA event held at Pinnacle. It featured 98 of the top 100 players on the tour’s money list and preceded this week’s U.S. Women’s Open in Southampton, N.Y.
Despite being one of the few 54-hole events on the tour, the tournament boasts a $2 million purse and a winner’s take of $300,000.
“I said at the beginning of the week that there isn’t a better field in golf,” Hardy said. “It does help being the week before the U.S. Open and having a top-five purse with a large winner’s check. I truly think the players really embraced the tournament. They obviously want events like this to grow. It’s good for all of us.”
Scanlan said the tournament isn’t just a calendar date before the Open.
“When you look at the purse of this event, when you look at the field of the event, it’s just not a warm-up for a major … it’s a significant event,” he said. “You’re not going find anybody on this tour have anything bad to say about this event.”
Scanlan, in his seventh year with the LPGA, said there’s no reason to believe the tour won’t continue in the area.
“Every tournament we walk away with a list of what went well, what went poorly, what can be improved,” he said. “I think this is one of those tournaments where there’s not many things on the what-can-be-improved list. They are pretty dialed into the community here.
“With all the charity money they’ve generated, they care about making a difference here, It’s not just hosting a golf tournament which is key to us. Once the dust settles, we’ll talk with them and we’ll figure out how to make it even better next year, but it’s not going to be easy, though.”
Sports, Pages 20 on 06/25/2013