Tournament moves from Baltimore to renovated course
Next year, Tiger Woods will move the AT&T National from Congressional Country Club to Aronimink in the suburbs of Philadelphia. But that doesn’t mean the Washington area will be shut out of professional golf.
Filling the void for 2010 will be the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. The tournament, hosted the last three years by Baltimore Country Club, will move to the newly renovated and renamed TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm.
The PGA Tour Board of Directors approved the move and announced it Wednesday. This is a one-year arrangement. The tournament, the fifth major on the Champions Tour, will be played Oct. 7-10, then return to Baltimore in 2011, fulfilling a site agreement.
“We are delighted to announce this one-year move and would like to thank the TPC Potomac membership for affording this opportunity to our players,” said Champions Tour president Mike Stevens in a press release. “Many [players] played there during the Kemper Open and the Booz Allen Classic days and will most certainly enjoy returning since its incredible renovation.”
The move is no surprise. Last month, during the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, Stevens hinted that the tour was eyeing Avenel.
“They did a great job with the re-do,” Stevens told Golf Digest. “With Tiger’s event going to Aronimink for the next couple of years, there’s a hole in [the Washington] marketplace for golf. We feel it would be a great opportunity for us to showcase the TPC and maybe get some additional momentum for this tournament.”
Avenel, widely criticized by players when the club began hosting a PGA Tour stop in 1986, underwent an ambitious $25 million facelift, which was completed this spring. The new Avenel, with improved sight lines, better definition of fairways and greens and an altered drainage system, has received rave reviews. Overseeing the changes were Steve Wenzloff and Jim Hardy.
“Our goal was to deliver a golf course that was capable of hosting major competitive golf,” said David Pillsbury, president of PGA Tour Golf Properties, who helped direct the renovation. “This is the PGA Tour’s flag in the nation’s capital.”
With the move, the Tour hopes to bring exposure to Avenel and lay the groundwork for the possibility of hosting other professional tournaments.
Congressional will host the 2011 U.S. Open and has signed on for the AT&T National from 2012-14. The alliance with Woods, however, is an uneasy one. In the latest vote, members agreed to host the tournament by only a small margin.
Would Woods consider eventually moving his tournament across the street to Avenel?
That could become a more viable option if Champions Tour players register their approval of the new course next October.
