The Greenbrier Classic is making another splash in the golf world with the recent announcement of free admission. The move seems to be celebrated in some corners.
On golf analyst Geoff Shackleford's website: "The only bummer: the concerts the event has become known for are off the table. At least for now. But finally, the freemium model gets tested at a PGA Tour event!"
(And this just in: Volunteers now have a crack at $20K!)
This is a valuable freebie, for sure. Admission to the FedEx St. Jude Classic at Memphis goes for $65 plus parking (but only with a MasterCard), and the Quicken Loans National near Washington runs $30 per day for the four competitive rounds.
Greenbrier resort owner Jim Justice may disagree, but cynics will call this one of America's most creative campaign rallies. If you somehow forgot that he is running for governor, just count his campaign signs upon entering Greenbrier County.
All this is just the latest twist on one of the most unusual stops on the PGA Tour, one that has featured:
n Fans winning $600 by merely sitting at the 18th green (and witnessing two holes-in-one);
n Phil Mickelson missing the cut not once but three times;
n Multiple runs at a 59 in the first year, 2010;
n A first-time PGA Tour winner (Ted Potter Jr., 2012) who once went 0 for 24 in making cuts on the Web.com Tour - with Mickelson and the then-brilliant Tiger Woods missing the cut;
n A four-way playoff (2015);
n And also last year, Shaquille O'Neal "whiffing" on the scenic No. 1 tee box. (Actually, I'd rather do that than top one into Howard's Creek.)
I could go on and on, and might at a later date.
From a purely sporting-event standpoint - and that's mostly where I focus my energies - this will be an unusual Classic.
Golf's inclusion in the Olympics has scrambled the summer Tour schedule like a Magic Bullet blender does an egg. For this year, the Classic is stuck between two events that, by definition, bring in the world's top 50 - the World Golf Championship's Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, and the British Open. The PGA Championship comes two weeks after the Open.
Shoot, the Fourth of July doesn't even line up right for the Classic. It's Monday.
The Classic remains a cog in the Open Qualifying Series, but one player will head to Royal Troon instead of four. That's a nod to logistics, as that last "golden ticket" winner has to immediately head across the Atlantic. The John Deere Classic in the Quad Cities has served that role previously.
Check the schedules of the world's top 50, and you don't typically see many playing three weeks in a row with a long flight in between. The Classic does have Bubba Watson and Danny Lee in the fold, with Daniel Berger having tweeted an intention to return. James Hahn is coming, and he's just outside the top 50.
And somehow there will be more, with officials unveiling commitments June 6. Rest assured that no matter what, there will be 156 players who are better than you, and anything can happen.
And usually does. That's what has made the Classic so fun.
As a reminder, fans need to reserve badges at greenbrierclassic.com and donate a nonperishable food item at the gate. The complimentary badges are capped at 32,000 per day; $199 Springhouse badges remain available.
nnn
Perhaps Marshall fans can dream of Justice launching his own "JimTV" cable network and entering the next bidding for Conference USA football and basketball television rights - remember, that's only two years away.
He wouldn't bid any lower, right?
So now that C-USA has slid to the wrong side of the Mid-American Conference on the TV money meter, what is the Marshall athletic department to do when total league payments take a dive?
I mean, the department had to take a hit when the NCAA approved the "permissive" cost-of-attendance stipends. (Yeah, don't give those and sell yourself on the recruiting trail. Dare ya.)
And now, the days when TV money easily justified Thundering Herd fans' desire to get the hell out of the MAC are dead. C-USA's four-partner lineup includes beIN Sports, a Qatar-based outfit I must confess I had never heard of.
Or had any reason to. What, Australia's Channel Seven dropped out?
I see a few positives in this contract. One, MU likely will have 12 games on somewhere, as should always be the case in this day and age. The last TV-less Herd game came on Sept. 7, 2013, the 55-0 win over Gardner-Webb, a school that had no business taking the payday.
Two, I have been told beIN Sports presents a quality production. Those who endured a CSTV telecast back in 2005 should be relieved.
The third positive? Perhaps none of these networks will pull the garbage stunt Fox Sports 1 did last fall, announcing games "live" games from a Hollywood studio.
In the 11 years Marshall has been a member, that's the worst TV insult C-USA has endured.