BIG V GETS SENIOR STOP.Byline: GREG WILCOX Golf When organizers of the Nissan Open The Northern Trust Open, formally known as the Nissan Open and originally known as the Los Angeles Open, is a regular golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played annually in February in Pacific Palisades, California. needed a temporary venue in 1998, they moved the popular tournament to Valencia Country Club in the Santa Clarita Valley The Santa Clarita Valley is the valley of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. It stretches through Los Angeles County and Ventura County. Its main population center is the city of Santa Clarita. The valley was part of the 48,612-acre (19,672. . The community went bonkers, with about 150,000 people attending the week-long event. That response got the attention of the PGA Tour The PGA Tour is an organization that operates the USA's main professional golf tours. It is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, USA. Its name is officially rendered in all caps as “PGA TOUR". and SBC (1) (SBC Communications Inc., San Antonio, TX, www.sbc.com) A large, national telecommunications company that grew from a multitude of local and regional companies, including Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell, into a single, unified brand by 2002. Communications, which announced Wednesday that the country club, or ``Big V'' as its known, will become a regular stop on the Senior PGA Tour. The SBC Senior Classic will be played March 5-11, which is also a new date for the tour's stop in Los Angeles. In the past, the tournament was played in October at Wilshire Country Club. The date switch is necessary because the SBC Championship will be played in San Antonio, where the company is based, in mid-October. Lora Watts, president of SBC, Los Angeles, said the company is thrilled the tournament is coming to Santa Clarita and hopes it becomes a major event in the community. ``Valencia Country Club is ideally suited to host a Senior PGA Tour event and the ancillary activities associated with it,'' she said. Tour official Jeff Adams said the club got high marks for its hosting of the Nissan, which had to move from its regular stop at Riviera Country Club The Riviera Country Club is a country club with a championship golf course. It is located in Pacific Palisades, California, within the city limits of Los Angeles, California. The country club opened in 1926, with George C. Thomas, Jr. as the course architect. because that course was getting ready for the 1998 Senior Open, a major championship. ``It was very well-received. It was a good site in any number of ways,'' he said of Big V. Club president Sam Omori said members are excited about being the host for the tournament. ``We are committed to work closely . . . with the tour and other tournament sponsors to make the SBC Senior Classic one of the premier events on the Senior PGA Tour.'' This year's tournament was the last for Wilshire, so Valencia officials gave head professional Dan Hernandez the OK to pursue the event. Basic terms are five years with a renewal option at the end of each year. Wayne Mills, course superintendent, has already started grooming the course, adding sand to some bunkers and doing extra over-seeding. And the course is typically in top-notch shape. ``The normal things we do are very attractive to the tour, which is one reason they like to come here. There is not a lot that they have to do,'' Hernandez said. Word that Valencia will be the host to another big golf tournament has already started spreading through the community and some groups have called to offer their services, Hernandez said. The Valencia event is the first of three tour stops sponsored by SBC, the telecommunications company that also owns Pacific Bell. It benefits the City of Hope and will be televised on CNBC CNBC Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (artificial intelligence) CNBC Consumer News and Business Channel CNBC Congress of National Black Churches, Inc. . The SBC Senior Classic was first played in 1990 and has raised $1.5 million for the charity. The purse will be $1.4 million, with $210,000 going to the winner. Joe Inman won the last three titles. --Birthday gifts: Cascades Golf Club, the first new public course built in the city of Los Angeles
Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , celebrates its first anniversary Saturday. So the course, at the base of the Santa Susana Mountains The Santa Susana Mountains are a transverse range of mountains in southern California, north of the city of Los Angeles, in the United States. The range runs east-west separating the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley on its south from Santa Clara River Valley to the north and near the Golden State Freeway The Golden State Freeway is a north-south freeway running through Kern County and Los Angeles County, California. Originally built as U.S. Highway 99, it was re-signed as Interstate 5 in 1964. , is throwing a birthday bash of sorts. Greens fees for the day will be $75, the opening-day tariff. But it includes a gift for all golfers, a bucket of range balls, a putting contest, free golf lesson, free fountain drinks and $1 hot dogs. There is cake and that's free, too. --Good start: Lost Canyons Golf Club, the upscale, Pete Dye-designed course in Simi Valley, has been open a month and has been doing a brisk business with group bookings, reports marketing director Meg Mackenzie. Mike Finnell, club manager at Lakeside Golf Club in Toluca Lake, says the 36-hole complex is the best new course in Los Angeles County in 30 years. A second 18 holes is scheduled to open in 2001, probably early February. ON THE GREEN MULTI-TOUR Hyundai Team Matches at Newport Coast Course: Pelican Hill GC North Course (par 71); PGA Tour 6,897 yards, Senior PGA Tour 6,693 yards, LPGA LPGA abbr. Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour 6,347 yards) Schedule: Saturday-Sunday Purse: $1.2 million, $100,000 to each of six winning players in two-person-team, match-play event TV: ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. (Saturday-Sunday 1-3 p.m.) Teams: PGA Tour: Fred Couples-Mark Calcavechia vs. Steve Flesch-Jean Van der Velde, Phil Mickelson-Rocco Mediate vs. Tom Lehman-Duffy Waldorf; LPGA Tour: Julie Inkster-Dottie Pepper vs. Grace Park-Kelli Kuehne, Annika Sorenstam-Lorie Kane vs. Meg Mallon-Beth Daniel; Senior PGA Tour: Jack Nicklaus-Tom Watson vs. Gary McCord-John Jacobs, Bruce Fleisher-David Graham vs. Dana Quigley-Allen Doyle. CAPTION(S): box Box: ON THE GREEN (see text) |
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