How Tucson was able to snare Tiger

It was 2004, and Tiger Woods was talking about lagging attendance — and slogging, soppy greens — at the Accenture World Match Play Championship outside San Diego.

"Why don't we just have (Match Play) in Tucson?" Woods said.

Judy McDermott smiled when she heard the comments, which ran in the Feb. 21, 2004, edition of the Los Angeles Times.

"We had a little proof in the pudding," said the executive director of the Tucson Conquistadores, the group that has run Tucson's PGA tournaments for years. "It let us know we weren't crazy."

When the top 64 golfers in the world begin Match Play practice Monday at The Gallery Golf Club at Dove Mountain, it will begin the largest international sporting event in Southern Arizona history.

Less than a decade after McDermott was told "Tucson was not cosmopolitan enough" to host Match Play, the city defeated five other contenders and got a four-year deal to host the tournament with an $8 million purse.

It was due to years of planning and a bit of serendipity: Biblical downpours in San Diego?

"It's one of those things that happens in the political and business world," said Tucson City Manager Mike Hein, a former Marana town manager. "It took a culmination of many big and small things."

In 1999, the Match Play event began play at the La Costa Resort and Spa on the same week as Tucson's Chrysler Classic. Tucson's tournament became an "opposite event" — meaning the best players wouldn't play here anymore.

Tucson's event lost credibility. After being rebuffed to host Match Play to begin with, the Tucson area began to desire an upgrade.

"We wanted to have at least the option or the opportunity to have the best players come to Tucson," said Russ Perlich, a lifetime member of the Conquistadores and the group's PGA Tour liaison.

The International Federation of PGA Tours — which sanctions the event — signed a four-year television deal for Match Play. It was held in Australia in 2001 and in San Diego the other three years. In 2001, the deal was re-upped for 2003-2006.

By the summer of 2005, however, rain had dampened the good feelings.

"The vibe in '01 was that we were staying in San Diego," said Michael Garten, executive director of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. "The vibe in '05 was that we might be moving."

In 2005, the start of the tournament was delayed by one day because of weather. Players teed off from the fairways on what had been dubbed "Lake La Costa." In 2004, the second round was delayed by a day because of flooding at the sea-level course with poor drainage.

So when Woods complained about the tournament in 2004, he wasn't alone.

"It was something a number of players were thinking, the PGA Tour was thinking," Garten said. "Tiger was the first to say that in those exact words."

The rain didn't sit well with the title sponsor, either. Every year, Accenture flies in about 500 corporate clients to play and watch golf, to network and schmooze.

"Nobody wants to go on a business meeting or client get-together and have it rain," said Gary Beckner, Accenture's director of global event marketing. "To be somewhere where they travel from a foot of snow to go to San Diego and stay indoors because of the rain … they might as well stay home."

While the tour negotiated the television deal, it looked at six other sites for the event — Orange County, Calif.; Los Angeles; Las Vegas; Phoenix/Scottsdale; Tucson; and a different course in San Diego. The tour preferred to keep the event as the anchor of the West Coast swing, but gave passing consideration to Texas and Florida.

Attendance in San Diego had been a problem. Fans could drive to three other PGA Tour events — the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in Palm Springs, Calif., the Nissan Open outside Los Angeles and the Buick Invitational in their own city — within a five-week span.

"I'm not sure the San Diego community would ever embrace us the way they embraced the others," Beckner said. "There was just too much golf."

The tour wanted to enter a market that wasn't saturated by the sports and entertainment options of Southern California. And the tour would not have to change its schedule if it came to Tucson; Match Play and the Chrysler Classic were held during the same week.

"They had a lake, they had weather problems, and they had 12 people there," the Conquistadores' Perlich said. "We had a venue that had better weather, did not have drainage problems and attracted a huge crowd despite a fairly unknown field."

Perlich said The Gallery's South Course at Dove Mountain was always seen as the primary Tucson-area site to hold the event. The North Course, built in 1998, hosted the first two rounds of the 2001 Chrysler Classic.

A new course is on the way. Cottonwood Properties developer David Mehl, who built Canyon Pass at Dove Mountain around The Gallery in 1999, has teamed with golf legend and designer Jack Nicklaus to build an adjacent course for the event. The two will hold a press conference Tuesday to talk about the course, which is set to open in 2009.

A new course at Dove Mountain — a custom-made course for Match Play — has its logistical advantages.

"The golf holes are grouped in a way that will make it easier for the gallery to see the golf and get around to watch the matches," Mehl said via e-mail from Canada, where he is vacationing.

Once the tour was convinced, Tucson's power players turned their attention to Accenture. State and local politicians met with Accenture executive Beckner and scouted the city's resort hotels.

"It took some convincing to get Accenture to move it out of Southern California," the Conquistadores' McDermott said. "Everyone rolled out the red carpet for them."

Beckner and Garten credit the Conquistadores, an organization founded in 1963 that includes 55 active members, with selling Tucson as the tournament's home.

"The tour contacted Tucson, and they were, to say 'cooperative' would be an understatement," Garten said. "They put the machine in motion — and that machine was the Conquistadores — to say, 'We really want it.' "

The tour had access to the Conquistadores' books from the Chrysler Classic, so it knew about the success — both in fundraising and tournament attendance — of that event. And the group's roots in the business community gave Match Play a built-in infrastructure, helping to avoid the pitfalls of moving to a new city with only a year's notice.

"Over the course of the next six to eight months, the cream rose to the top," Garten said. "The Conquistadores were a big part of why we came here."

The Conquistadores raised more than $1 million per year for local charities by running the Chrysler Classic. Their role will be different with Match Play. With the tour running the event, the Conquistadores have become the marketing and ticket sales arm.

"We can focus on selling the tickets," McDermott said, "and not slinging plywood."

Match Play has people to do that for them — another cog in the hundreds-strong machine that helped bring the tournament here.

"Some people had better things" to offer Match Play, Beckner said. "Nobody else had all of them."

What's INSIDE OUR 18-pAGE SPECIAL SECTION

Who's who

Meet the 64 best golfers in the world. They'll all be here for Match Play for the first time in the history of the event. Sure, you know Tiger and Phil Mickelson, but do you know Jeev Milkha Singh and Miguel Angel Jiménez?

64 things we like

Think of it like the NCAA basketball tournament. We break down the items to love about Match Play: Shingo Katayama's cool cowboy hat; East Tennessee State is not in the tournament; Sabino High grad Dan Hicks broadcasting for NBC; and of course, Tiger in town.

Hansen on golf

Star sports columnist Greg Hansen opines on the most challenging 18 holes in Southern Arizona. No. 10 at Arizona National is not a nightmare; we call it a challenge. Are you ready for Hole 2 at Canoa Ranch in Green Valley?

A spectator's guide

A map of The Gallery South Course and how to get to the parking lots. Find out how the match play format works and figure out the lingo. Pairings and former winners are also included.

Find it all inside Classifieds

FOUR moments that swung MATCH PLAY our way

1Rain in Southern California. Escaping the deluge at La Costa Resort and Spa outside San Diego — and the mild attendance that came with it — was the primary reason Match Play looked to leave.

2Power lunch. While watching the rain on TV at the 2004 Match Play event, the Tucson Conquistadores' Russ Perlich pitched Tucson to PGA Tour Vice President Larry Hughes. Said Hughes: "It was a quiet moment. Tucson was a target market we thought could work."

3Convincing the title sponsor. Getting Accenture's blessing was maybe the largest potential stumbling block for Tucson. Accenture director of global event marketing Gary Beckner came to Tucson for what he called a "two-and-half day whirlwind" in 2005, meeting with everyone from Gov. Janet Napolitano to Mayor Bob Walkup and touring different resorts.

4Building a world-class course and planning a new one. When Cottonwood Properties developer David Mehl built Canyon Pass at Dove Mountain around developer John MacMillan's Gallery Golf Club, he knew he was onto something special. A new course in 2009 should make up for some of the practical difficulties of The Gallery South, building in room for fans and closer parking.