From The Desert Sun
www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/sports/20040519015103.shtmlAt long last in my opinion unless these courses turn out to be birdie festivals.
Steve
By Larry Bohannan
The Desert Sun
May 19th, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RANCHO MIRAGE -- In the most sweeping changes in its 45-year history, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic is poised to add three new courses to the Coachella Valley’s PGA Tour stop in 2006.
SilverRock Resort in La Quinta and the Berger Foundation course at Cook Street on the north side of Interstate 10 will join the golf tournament in 2006, as first reported Tuesday morning on thedesertsun.com.
In addition, the Indian Wells City Council will consider Thursday a plan to play the Classic at Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells starting in 2006.
All three are under construction and will open in the next eight months.
Classic officials said the status of the four 2005 courses -- the Palmer Course at PGA West, La Quinta, Bermuda Dunes and Tamarisk country clubs -- was under discussion for 2006 and beyond.
Officials said the changes and long-term deals with the new courses are designed to create better, more fan-friendly venues and secure the tournament’s future.
The deal with the city of La Quinta, approved by a 5-0 vote by the City Council Tuesday, is 15 years, and the deal with the Berger Foundation course is 40 years.
"The format and the name will be identical," Classic executive board member John Foster said. "The history will be all the same. What we will have is more exciting venues to help folks enjoy the tournament."
The announcement of the new courses, which tournament officials say has the full support of the PGA Tour, comes one month after the tournament dropped Indian Wells Country Club from the rotation of the five-day, four-course event after 45 years.
Classic officials, PGA Tour agronomists and even officials for ABC-TV, which broadcasts the Classic, will have input into the construction of the layouts, Foster said.
"We brought the tour in. They understand exactly what we are doing, the future," Foster said.
The SilverRock course, developed by the city of La Quinta, has been the main focus of speculation about a new course joining the Classic since Indian Wells Country Club was dropped.
The yet-to-be-named Berger Course, being developed as part of a resort on unincorporated land near Palm Desert, will join SilverRock as a host course.
Those courses will alternate being the site of Sunday’s pro-only play after four days of pro-am play.
They also will be the first courses without residential developments in the Classic, and the first since the TPC Stadium Course at PGA West in 1987 that allow some form of public play.
"It looks to me like the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic has a chance to be something for the community it hasn’t been, and we have a chance to participate in that," La Quinta Councilwoman Terry Henderson said.
Toscana, a residential golf development in Indian Wells, will be played each year but will not be a host course.
The new courses will strengthen the Classic’s association with some familiar names.
SilverRock Resort and the Berger Foundation course are both designed by Arnold Palmer, a five-time winner of the Classic and part-time La Quinta resident.
Toscana is designed by Jack Nicklaus, winner of 18 major championships and the champion of the 1963 Hope tournament.