Like a well-struck drive, professional golf is soaring in Maryland.
A handful of professional tours, including the PGA, LPGA and Champions circuits have made Maryland home for tournaments in 2007.
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“I think it?s great,” said Rick Rounsaville, Bulle Rock?s general manager/director of golf. “When you look at the schedule within this area, you have a ladies major, a senior major, Tiger?s event will be a big event, and on top of that, there was a men?s Nationwide Tour event here last year, and the [Duramed Future Tour] will be at Hunters Oak [in Queenstown] later in the year. We?ve got basically every major tour in the area.”
Rounsaville?s course, located in Havre de Grace, will host next week?s McDonalds LPGA Championship. The senior major he spoke of was the Champions Tour?s Constellation Energy Senior Player?s Championship, which will take place Oct. 4-7 at Baltimore Country Club. The Nationwide Tour made a stop last week at The Country Club at Woodmore in Mitchellville with the Melwood Prince George?s County Open.
Tiger Woods was a major force in bringing the AT&T National to Congressional Country Club in Bethesda. That PGA Tour event will be held July 5-8.
“It?s our nation?s birthday,” Woods said during a Tuesday news conference at Congressional. “I want to make a very hard outreach to the men and women serving our country. I grew up in a military household. ? I don?t think it could be any better than to have it in [the] D.C. [area].”
Such events will also have a positive effect on the local economy.
“Our decision to expand our partnership with the Champions Touris just another example of our corporate commitment to the economic viability of Baltimore, the state of Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic region,” Constellation Energy chairman/president/CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III said in a release. “We believe this event will grow the $35 million annual economic impact the current Constellation Energy Classic has brought to the region and the $1.5 million raised for charity over the last three years.”
Prior to this year, the Champions event was held at Hayfields, in Baltimore County, since 2003.
Rounsaville?s Bulle Rock course has been recognized as one of the best public courses in the mid-Atlantic area. His course, and a number of others throughout Maryland, has made the state a destination for golf.
“I think, from my standpoint and the standpoint of Bulle Rock, it?s been terrific,” Rounsaville said golf?s local growth. “We?re definitely a destination facility. The golf course has continued to get rewards.”
That has a lot to do with Bulle Rock?s draw, which not only comes from Baltimore and Northern Virginia, but from southern New Jersey, southern Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia metro area.
“Every day, there?s one of those license plates in our parking lot,” Rounsaville said.
But even better for local golf, the drivers of those cars are spreading the word about Baltimore-area golf.
“Wherever they are,” Rounsaville said, “there is a Bulle Rock tag on someone?s bag all over the country.”
MARYLAND GOLF
NATIONWIDE » Melwood Prince George?s County Open, Mitchellville, May 24-27
LPGA » McDonald?s LPGA Championship, Havre de Grace, June 7-10
PGA » AT&T National, Bethesda, July 5-8
DURAMED FUTURES » Hunters Oak Golf Classic, Queenstown, Aug. 14-19
CHAMPIONS » Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, Baltimore, Oct. 4-7
? Staff writer Kevin Dunleavy contributed to this story
