WGC Accenture Championship to stay in Tucson Arizona - PGA update
Much to the relief of Arizona’s golf fans, the Match Play Championship will be returning to the Dove Mountain Golf Club in 2012. The decision was announced by the PGA Tour on Monday and it stated that the Championship will be staged at the same venue, The
Ritz Carlton Golf Club at Blue Monster next year.
The new contract with Dove Mountain will expire after the Championship next year while the sponsorship with Accenture will continue till 2014. The WGC Accenture Match Play Championship which was held last month at this venue, suffered a two hour halt due
to high winds and rain. The suitability of the venue has long been questioned by critics and is often crtised as being “miles away from civilization”. Dove Mountain is located deep in the Arizona desert, making it difficult for the general public as well as
the media to cover the high profile Tournament. The unpredictable weather also poses a serious threat to the championship schedule and can give losses to the TV channels covering the event. It even snowed the night before Luke Donald of England won the Championship
defeating World number one Martin Kaymer of Germany.
The organizers at PGA were not only considering a change in calendar as well as the venue after the Championship as one of the TV channel contracts also expired. However, the tour director, Tim Finchem, remained optimistic about the course and the excellent
facilities that it offered. “We’re not uncomfortable here, it’s worked well and we have a good partnership with the people here. The facilities are great. It’s just that as we get into television later this year, it forces us to look at the overall calendar
and make sure the calendar works.”
PGA has now also announced that Gerald Goodman, who had been managing the Innisbrook event at Tampa Florida, will also be taking over the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship.
The event had moved to Tucson Arizona in 2009. Since its inception, the tournament was held from 1999-2006 at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California, only moving to Metropolitan Golf Club in Victoria, Australia once in 2001. The event was later
shifted to The Gallery Golf Club in Marana, Arizona, northwest of Tucson in 2007 for two years before finally moving to its current location at Dove Mountain.
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