Different Strokes

The story behind the 1998 and 1999 U.S. Senior Open golf tournaments, to be played in Los Angeles and Des Moines, respectively, is a tale of two cities.

When spectators line Hogan’s Alley this weekend to watch Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus play the posh Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, they’ll enjoy ocean views and be enveloped in the course’s storied Hollywood past.

But the considerable star power of golf’s two aging poster boys--who are making their last joint U.S. Senior Open appearance in Southern California--hasn’t been enough to guarantee a sellout. The club is hoping for strong same-day ticket sales during the final rounds to reach its goal of 100,000 paid admissions. And Riviera had to scramble for enough volunteers to ensure that the seven-day tournament runs smoothly.

In contrast, golf’s senior set won’t step onto Des Moines Golf and Country Club’s course until July 1999, but the local supermarket chain has already advertised ticket sales on its carryout sacks, and 500 eager Iowans are on a waiting list to serve as volunteers.

Sporting-event sponsors in event-weary Southern California can only dream of that kind of support. The Senior Open is just one of five major golf tournaments to be held here this year. And golf is jockeying for fans along with baseball, tennis and, this weekend, a major surfing contest in Huntington Beach.

In Des Moines, the Senior Open is “going to be the sporting event of the year--as well as the social, economic and civic event,” said Fernando Guerra, a golfer and director of Loyola Marymount University’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles. “That’s not going to happen in L.A. with this tournament. It won’t even be the event of the month.”

Nonetheless, the stakes are high for both cities. The U.S. Golf Assn., which runs the senior tournament, will keep close tabs on course conditions and ticket sales. Des Moines is seen as a testing ground for tournaments in second-tier cities. Meanwhile, should the Riviera attract 100,000 by the end of the tournament Sunday, it could be a contender for the coveted U.S. Open, which hasn’t come to Los Angeles since 1948, when legend Ben Hogan gave the course its Hogan’s Alley sobriquet.

The U.S. Open is one of the nation’s premiere golfing events because of the quality of players it draws and the limited number of courses that are chosen for it. Hosting the prestigious tournament gives golf clubs and the host city bragging rights.

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The U.S. Open’s long absence from Los Angeles irks many golfers. “This is a mecca of golf,” said Dan Stevenson, chairman of the Riviera’s Senior Open committee. “And the USGA has even said it’s a little embarrassed not to have had [the U.S. Open] here in such a long time.”

The U.S. Golf Assn. says it wants to return to Southern California, but only if it is invited by a course that’s capable of producing tournament-level competition.

Golf fans love to attend U.S. Opens, but members of some exclusive clubs--including the Los Angeles Country Club--haven’t extended an invitation because club members either balk at the expense or simply don’t want to turn their exclusive courses over to the professionals during prime golfing season. Other clubs that have volunteered lack the character or finances needed to host the tournament, said USGA Deputy Executive Director Mike Butz.

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Riviera’s directors are betting that a hole in one with this weekend’s tournament will help restore an image sullied in 1995 when the PGA Championship came to town. Golfers criticized Riviera for the condition of its greens and spectators grumbled about a policy that emphasized expensive ticket packages rather than single-day admissions.

When attendance at the ’95 tournament wasn’t up to par, many in the golf world began to wonder whether Southern Californians were really interested in supporting major golf tournaments.

Japanese businessman Noboru Watanabe, who purchased Riviera in 1989, has spent freely in his quest to prove that the club is up to the challenge. It budgeted $4.5 million for the Senior Open, and spent millions more to renovate the tile-roof clubhouse.

Riviera has used its limited marketing budget to focus on the last joint Senior Open appearance by Nicklaus and Palmer. Club officials hope the two famous names will help push overall attendance to 100,000, a figure that golf industry observers say is sufficient to prove to the USGA that Southern Californians are supportive of big tournaments.

Meanwhile, smaller cities nationwide are keeping a close eye on Des Moines because a successful 1999 tournament stop there will make it easier for other second-tier cities to become hosts of USGA tournaments, which typically gravitate toward larger metropolitan areas.

One Des Moines business leader acknowledges that USGA officials “chuckled a bit when we first asked them to come to Des Moines.” But the group says it expects the city to weigh in with a top-quality tournament and sold-out galleries.

“What we’ve learned is that when you take a Senior Open to a place like Des Moines that isn’t going to have that much competition, it’s a natural formula for success,” Butz said.

In 1992, the USGA brought a major tournament to Bethlehem, Pa. “It was a great golf course, very much like Des Moines, but it hadn’t had a USGA championship for many, many years,” Butz said. “But we ended up having 25,000 people a day and 30 hospitality tents . . . and we think Des Moines will probably eclipse that.”

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Corporate sponsors are already booking large blocks of hotel rooms, and golf fans in surrounding states have begun making reservations for the weeklong tournament, said Paulette Lester, an official with the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau.

David Merlo, senior vice president of marketing for Des Moines-based Norwest Bank Iowa, said the USGA is simply following good business practices by expanding the number of venues where it conducts its top tournaments.

“The USGA is in the entertainment business,” Merlo said. “And when you get to big cities like Los Angeles, the law of supply and demand is at work. Or maybe when you come to entertainment, you should say the law of oversupply and lack of demand.”

* SPECIAL SECTION: Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer have competed against each other for almost four decades, and this week’s U.S. Senior Open might be the last time they do it for real. S1

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Golf Scorecard

More than 26 million Americans play golf, but just 20% of them describe themselves as avid golfers, according to the National Golf Foundation. The number of courses has increased by 20% since 1986, to 16,010 from 13,353.

Gender

Male: 20,737,000 (78.3%)

Female: 5,737,000 (21.7%)

Total: 26,474,000

Age

12-17: 8.9%

18-29: 21.7%

30-39: 25.5%

40-49: 19.1%

50-59: 11.1%

60-64: 3.7%

65 and over: 10.1%

Household Income

Under $20,000: 11.2%

$20,000 to $29,999: 8.5%

$30,000 to $39,999: 11.9%

$40,000 to $49,999: 12.1%

$50,000 to $74,999: 25.3%

$75,000 to $99,999: 15.5%

$100,000 and over: 15.5%

Note: Figures may not total 100% because of rounding.

Source: National Golf Foundation