Diners Club Event Puts Single-Day Tickets on Sale

With legends Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson on the marquee, Diners Club Matches Tournament Director Gary Pollard expected a quick sellout.

Despite the famous duo leading a strong field playing at Pelican Hill with its million-dollar views of the Pacific Ocean, ticket sales have been slow.

“I really thought too many people would want to come,” Pollard said. “We wanted to keep it small and if we don’t sell some tickets soon, it’s going to be very small.”

The field is made up of 24 players, eight each from the PGA, Senior PGA and LPGA tours.

Pollard decided to cut ticket sales off at about 10,000 to create the “up close and personal” feeling he wanted for those paying $125 for the event that features a celebrity pro-am on Dec. 10 and competition on Dec. 11-12.

Tickets went on sale in late September and about 1,000 had been sold as of Tuesday. Pollard said sales have picked up a bit this week and stressed that another 2,500 tickets have been bought by corporate sponsors of the event.

Still, Pollard has added single-day tickets--$45 for the pro-am, and $65 for Saturday or Sunday--to try to boost sales.

“I really thought the word of Nicklaus-Watson would spread like wildfire,” said Pollard who has helped stage events for Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf in Barbados and Aruba. “But I’m not disappointed. I’m still confident we’re going to do really well; it’s just been a little bit of an adjustment.”

DINERS CLINIC

Steve Pate, a 1999 U.S. Ryder Cup team member who is teaming with Mark Wiebe in the Diners Club Matches, will be the featured professional at a free youth clinic from 3:30-5:30 p.m. Dec. 9 at the Pelican Hill practice center.

Pate will join Glenn Deck, Pelican Hill’s director of golf instruction, in leading the clinic for children ages 7 to 17. They will introduce golf, provide instruction and work on fundamentals.

To register for the clinic, call Kevin Ostroske of the Southern California PGA at (714) 776-4653.

In a related item, the teaching professionals from the Glenn Deck Golf Academy will offer free tips to golfers at the Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach Friday through Sunday from 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

RIPE AND READY

When Strawberry Farms opened in Irvine two years ago this month, raw was the best way to describe the back nine.

The edges of the back nine were covered with the fresh tracks of earthmovers and parts of course seemed to have been put in place overnight.

But two years of maturing has vastly improved the look of the second nine, which is now on par with the mature front side.

The chewed-up dirt has been covered by the natural vegetation of the surrounding hills. And thanks to over-seeding, the layout is as green as ever.

Having the course in the best possible condition is a priority to General Manager Rick Howard because of the competitiveness of the local golf market.

Aliso Viejo Golf Club entered the high-end market earlier this year and Strawberry Farms is already getting plenty of competition from Oak Creek, Tijeras Creek and Pelican Hill.

Despite other options, Strawberry Farms, which is $85 Monday through Thursday and $125 Friday through Sunday, has had two solid years, averaging about 52,000 rounds in each.

“We avoided the sophomore slump a lot of courses go through,” Howard said, “but it’s not getting any easier with all the great golf courses out there.”

MAY DAY

With a two-year exemption on the European PGA Tour, Bob May didn’t have the same sense of urgency as most of the players in the final U.S. PGA Tour qualifying tournament.

“I was really never nervous during the whole thing,” May said Tuesday from his home in Las Vegas. “I guess knowing that you have a place to play is always a nice backup.”

It’s also nice when you play as well as May did in the qualifying tournament that ended Monday at Doral Resort and Spa in Miami. May, who grew up in La Habra, said he missed only about 12 greens in the six rounds and shot 67-70-70-66-67-66 to finish at 14-under-par. That put him a comfortable six shots above the cut to make the 2000 PGA Tour.

Because of May’s 11th-place finish on the European Tour order of merit with 609,662 euros (about $626,000 at the current exchange rate) he has qualified for the 2000 U.S. Open and British Open.

Staff writer Martin Beck contributed to this report.