The Original Home of the Tournament of Champions

HERE’S A BRIEF HISTORY of the event currently known as the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, the PGA Tour’s season opener. The tournament that features an all-winners field has been played in early January at Maui’s Kapalua Resort since 1999. Prior to that, the event spent three decades at the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California (outside of San Diego). I used to go to the tournament in the 1980s and once caddied in the pro-am. The feisty Raymond Floyd was our pro.

But did you know the original home of the Tournament of Champions was Las Vegas, Nevada?

It began in 1953 at the Desert Inn Country Club. Las Vegas was in the midst of a development boom, but Las Vegas golf was nowhere near what it is today. Al Besselink won the first edition. (You get bonus points if you’ve heard of Besselink, who I saw last year in North Carolina.) Art Wall Jr. won in 1954. Then Gene Littler reeled off three straight victories in the desert. In those days the Tournament of Champions was played in late April just before the Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas. The event moved down the Las Vegas Strip to the Stardust Country Club in the mid 1960s.

Nearly a half century after Littler’s win streak, Stuart Appleby snagged three consecutive trophies in Hawaii. Jack Nicklaus leads with five TOC titles, claimed from 1963 to 1977.

The Desert Inn Country Club is gone. Built in 1961, the Stardust Country Club is now the Las Vegas National Golf Club. Of course, today there are dozens of new Las Vegas golf courses. And all bogeys, double bogeys and “others” made in Vegas stay in Vegas.

−The Armchair Golfer

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The Rules Geek: Camilo Villegas and the Divot DQ

Editor’s note: The Rules Geek is an occasional and potentially annoying feature at ARMCHAIR GOLF.

CAMILO VILLEGAS UNKNOWINGLY BREACHED Rule 23-1 during the first round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions and was disqualified the following day for signing an incorrect scorecard. Had Villegas known the rule and called a two-stroke penalty on himself, he would have played another day at the Plantation Course. Actually, had he been aware of the rule he probably wouldn’t have violated it to begin with.

The three-time PGA Tour winner flicked away loose pieces of grass as his golf ball rolled down a slope toward him and his divot on the 15th hole. That’s a no-no.

Rule 23. Loose Impediments. 23-1. Relief reads, in part, “When a ball is in motion, a loose impediment that might influence the movement of the ball must not be removed.”

A short while later, Villegas signed for a 72. It should have been a 74. The infraction was tweeted to Golf Channel and the PGA Tour by a TV viewer. After seeing what he did, Villegas accepted the disqualification as gracefully as could be expected.

“While it is obviously a disappointing way to start the season,” he said in a statement, “the rules are the rules, and when something like this happens, it’s important to me that you’re respectful of the game and the people involved.”

The TV viewer faced a backlash as is often the case, noted PGA Tour rules official Jon Brendle. But the The Rules Geek has to ask: Why don’t the players have a better handle on the rules?

Veteran Rocco Mediate said on a scale of 1 to 10, players are about a “5” when it comes to knowing the rules. “And that’s being nice,” he said.

That doesn’t cut it. Don’t cry about TV viewers, players. Read The Rules of Golf. Read a few pages each night and you’ll be through the book in a few weeks. Also, don’t forget to read those local rules sheets.

The Rules Geek sez rules were made to be followed. Got a rules-related tip or story? Send it to The Rules Geek at armchairgolfer@gmail.com.

More Rules Geek:
Bad Behavior Down Under?
Juli Inkster and the Donut DQ
Phil Mickelson and the Proper Drop
Abnormal Ground Conditions Aid Amateur
Hunter Mahan’s Driver Replacement

(Photo credit: pattoncito, Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Rocco Is Loving Life and First Tattoo

OF THE 34 WINNERS set to tee off Thursday at the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions, Rocco Mediate may be the most grateful. The Roc Man’s PGA Tour status was in serious doubt until he pulled off a surprising Fall Series win at the Frys.com Open, his sixth career victory and first title in eight long years.

Now he’s in Kapalua with a new attitude and new tattoo, his first, an “R,” “N” and “M” on his right bicep. The letters are the initials of his three sons, Rocco, Nikko and Marco. A photograph of his tattoo will appear in the March issue of Golf Digest.

“I’m 48 and got cooler,” Mediate told the magazine’s Dave Shedloski.

It wasn’t impulsive. Rocco had been thinking about it for a while. He wanted the tattoo to mean something. So now he has his boys on his arm.

Being able to play in a winners-only event means something, too. Mediate is the oldest player in the field. During the slump and injuries that followed his epic playoff duel with Tiger Woods at the 2008 U.S. Open, Rocco must have wondered if he would have any more big moments on the PGA Tour. Then along came that special week in San Jose.

“Everything is getting better,” he said, including his troublesome back. “… And it’s pretty cool. I still think I can compete out here.”

−The Armchair Golfer

Visor tip to Dave Shedloski at Local Knowledge

(Photo credit: Keith Allison, Flickr, Creative Commons license)