A FAREWELL TO D.C. GOLF
“I will miss seeing all the familiar faces at these events.
I will miss the buzz or energy that a Tour event brings.
And I’ll miss the opportunity to volunteer through the
MAPGA in these events as well.”
–Mark Guttenberg
tual major champions winning each of the
first five championships.
The tournament then moved to TPC
Potomac at Avenel Farm (formerly TPC
Avenel) where it was highly criticized
and became a de facto second-tier event,
losing the high-profile winners that it had
garnered in its early years.
Avenel played host 19 times in the orig-
inal tournament run, yielding victories by
seven current and future major winners,
but the big names tended to stay away and
that started to take a toll as sponsorship
costs increased.
In 2003, Kemper backed out of its spon-
sorship of 35 years, the longest running on
tour at the time, citing a poor economic situ-
ation. With four years left on the PGA Tour’s
contract, FBR came in to sponsor the event
for a year and then Booz Allen took over
before the tournament was nixed for good.
Just when it seemed as though all hope
was lost for PGA Tour golf in the area,
Tiger Woods swooped in to save the day,
bringing the new AT&T sponsored Nation-
al to Congressional. A great field followed,
headlined by Tiger, Phil Mickelson and
Vijay Singh.
It was exactly what D.C. needed, but
the event couldn’t sustain itself. Great
champions followed with Tiger winning
twice, Ryder Cup star Anthony Kim get-
ting his second tour win, and Justin Rose
winning at both Aronimink outside Phil-
adelphia while Congressional prepared
for the 2011 U.S. Open, and again when it
returned to D.C.
Then the tournament started to lose its
home. A rotation commenced with Con-
gressional scheduled to get the event every
other year through 2020, with VSGA mem-
ber club Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in
Gainesville and TPC Potomac rumored
to be switching off in odd years. On top of
that, an injured Tiger was unable to play in
five of the 12 events, including two of the
past three. His absence was a real blow to
the tournament as ratings always dropped
when he wasn’t present. That is certainly
not unique to this event, but Tiger being
far and away the biggest draw in a tourna-
ment associated with his foundation, puts
it in a unique position.
CORPORATE ISSUES
Just as the dust seemed to be settling,
Tiger’s injuries were healing, and his form
was returning, the rug was pulled out from
under the event. Quicken Loans announced
late in 2017 that it would not be extending
its sponsorship for the event. The Tour was
dedicated to making the 2018 event happen
regardless and bought out its contract with
Congressional, announcing that TPC Poto-
mac would once again play host.
No doubt uncertainty as to whether
Woods would play had a part in the deci-
sion by both Quicken Loans and the Tour.
Quicken Loans obviously hadn’t seen the
impact it wanted with Woods missing, but
the Tour had to bet on itself and hope for
a return by Woods after a fourth back sur-
gery. As time got closer, Woods committed,
Tiger finished tied for fourth at the final National,
while Francesco Molinari broke the tournament
scoring record to win the event.
20
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 18
vsga.org