Josh Weaver
Pinnacle Sports Writer
Entering its seventh year as a PGA Tour Fall Series event, the
Frys.com Open has maintained a steep ascension in its growth toward
gaining a reputation worthy of attracting some of golf’s biggest
names.
Following the 2010 running of the tournament at San Martin’s
CordeValle Golf Club, where Rocco Mediate’s stirring final round
eagle on No. 17 to give him the title thrilled a rain-soaked
gallery, word continued to spread.
Josh Weaver
Pinnacle Sports Writer
Entering its seventh year as a PGA Tour Fall Series event, the Frys.com Open has maintained a steep ascension in its growth toward gaining a reputation worthy of attracting some of golf’s biggest names.
Following the 2010 running of the tournament at San Martin’s CordeValle Golf Club, where Rocco Mediate’s stirring final round eagle on No. 17 to give him the title thrilled a rain-soaked gallery, word continued to spread.
Last year’s modest success of the Silicon Valley’s first full-fledged PGA Tour event spurred positive feedback that hasn’t come as a surprise to tournament president Duke Butler and tournament director Ian Knight, who have been adamant in their efforts to elevate the Frys.com Open into a regular season tour event. And in turn, they have help create a buzz that has reverberated around the Tour, leading to some of the biggest players in the sport to tossing their names into the hat.
“All along, even coming out of last year’s event, we made plans for expectations that we might have a major player commitment to us that would bring us significantly larger crowds,” Knight said during a teleconference as part of media day Tuesday. “So we have been working with those plans in the back of our mind. When the strong player commitments started coming in, we activated those.”
Mediate, Tiger Woods, Angel Cabrera, David Duval, Paul Casey, Ricky Barnes, Trevor Immelman, Justin Leonard and most recently, Ernie Els, have spiced up the field for an event hinged on fans’ up-close-and-personal experiences with the pros.
“I think that the player’s perception of the event is very good and very positive, and I think having some of the top world players commit to it just reiterates that point,” said Joseph Bramlett a San Jose native and Stanford graduate who made his PGA Tour debut at last year’s Frys.com Open. “I think that it’s going to be a very strong field and it continues to get stronger each and every year. I think it’s exciting that the tournament is built this way.”
An original agreement with Santa Clara County of a peak paid spectator limit of 15,000 per day will remain in tack, Butler said, which along with the strong presence of many young, local players in the field, the ambiance of the event will not be lost among the hustle and bustle associated with a Tiger sighting. Extra security, though, will be provided for Woods and his group, Butler said.
“This gives us the opportunity to really build the foundation for a world class PGA Tour event in the Bay Area,” Knight said. “So we are very excited about this opportunity and making the most of it, and showing people what the best of PGA Tour gold looks like in the Silicon Valley.”
It appears as though the people are curious, too.
“We are at about almost three times the ticket sales that we had last year in total. So we’ve seen a dramatic increase,” Knight said. “We have added probably about 350 volunteers to our overall volunteer staff, and it really came in a flood. As soon as the player commitments started to come in, we saw the volunteer positions go away quickly. We are very fortunate this year to have a lot of strong returning volunteers and a lot of new ones.”
Knight said he does see the possibility of a sell out, but for now, tickets are still available through the tournament’s website frysopengolf.com.
