For everyone connected with the 84 Lumber Classic of Pennsylvania, Monday couldn't have been a great deal better.
In an afternoon press conference at the UPMC Medical facility on the south side, tournament officials gave a glowing status of the fledgling event, which will be staged Sept. 15-21 at the Nemacolin Woodlands and Resort in Farmington.
And then, the scene shift down the Monongahela River a few hundred yards for the big promotional event of the day: the attempt of John Daly to drive a golf ball across the Mon.
In keeping with the theme of the day, Daly accomplished the feat twice, once hitting the ball on the far side of the river, the other CLEARING the wall.
Daly's dialing long distance was the perfect way to cap the day in which the look of actual tickets was unveiled and news concerning support for the PGA Tour event, according to tournament director Eric Mehl, was said to be extraordinary.
"We are right now 95 percent sold out of our corporate packages," Mehl said. "The Wednesday pro-am is sold out and there are just a few spots left in the Sunday and Monday pro-ams. We have 14 chalets sold on the 18th fairway and 20 more hospitality structures sold around the 17th and 18th greens."
Over 1,000 volunteers have paid and are ready to work during tournament week and 15,000 parking spaces in and around Nemacolin Woodlands have been secured to take care of whatever size crowd shows up that week.
Prices for tickets were officially made known Monday. Practice round tickets (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) are $11; tickets for Thursday through Sunday, the actual tournament days are $22. And, as Maggie Magerko Hardy, who with her father is co-owner of Nemacolin and 84 Lumber, pointed out, children under 12 are admitted to the tournament free with a paying adult.
Weekly badges are available for $84, as Mehl said, "we're marketing geniuses, aren't we?"
All that's needed now is a field and Daly is using his presence on Tour to help in that regard.
"I've been talking to the players, trying to get commitments from the guys on Tour," Daly said. "It's tough with the schedules everybody has, but I'm going to work hard to make sure we have the kind of field this event deserves."
And then Daly said the words that had to make tournament officials smile broadly.
"I'd like to talk to Tiger (Woods) about coming here, but you have to go through 500 IMG guys (Woods' management group) and 200 security guards," he said. "I guess I'll just have to give him a call and get him here. He owes me a favor. Tiger told me that if I won a tournament in 2001, I'd get invited to his tournament (the Williams Invitational). Somehow I got X'd out of that so he owes me one."
More information about tickets is available by calling 888-356-8484, checking out the tournament website at www.84lumberclassic.com, go to select 84 Lumber Classic stores or at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa.
