Tigermania hits Nissan Open
By John Strege
The Orange County Register
(KRT)
LOS ANGELES - The Nissan Open is not a major championship,
nor is it a minor one. It has Tiger Woods in its field.
No other element is required to elevate a tournament to a substantial
cut above the rest than Woods' entrance. Indeed, there seems to
be only two kinds of tournaments these days: those with Woods
and those without him.
A few weeks ago, Woods won the Asian Classic in Thailand, an
event on the talent-thin Omega Tour. Mark O'Meara, meanwhile,
won the Buick Invitational, a PGA Tour event with a formidable
field. Woods' victory generally was trumpeted by the media - electronic
and print - to a greater degree than O'Meara's victory, his second
in a row and 14th of his career.
So it goes with Tigermania, a phenomenon that resurfaces at
Riviera Country Club, in the Nissan Open, which begins Thursday.
When Woods officially committed last week to playing at Riviera,
Nissan tournament officials began bracing for an onslaught unlike
any they have ever seen, substantially greater even than when
John Daly began playing here in 1992, at the height of his popularity.
Conversely, by playing at Riviera, Woods almost certainly will
skip the Doral-Ryder Open next week in Miami. This was not good
news in South Florida; Woods' probable decision not to play there
was the lead story in the Miami Herald.
The Nissan Open and the Doral-Ryder Open; the haves and the
have-nots. It might not be fair, but at the outset of the Tiger
Woods Era in professional golf it is reality. The proof is in
the ticket sales.
"Pre-sale orders (of tickets) have doubled," said
Sean Lenihan, director of sales for the Nissan Open.
Attendance for the Nissan Open generally pushes 150,000 for
the week with 50,000 in attendance for the final round. Tournament
director Tom Pulchinski expects those numbers to increase by as
much as 25 to 30 percent.
"I probably would agree with the rest of the tournaments
he's played," Pulchinski said. "They said they sold
25 percent more tickets than the year before."
The Nissan Open even capitalized on speculation that Woods
would play. He was not going to officially enter the tournament
until after his father's bypass surgery at UCLA Medical Center
last week. When Earl Woods was removed from intensive care, Tiger
committed to playing here.
"We start selling tickets in October," Lenihan said,
"and sales are slow through January. But speculation that
Woods was playing accelerated sales. Our phones have been going
crazy for two months instead of one month."
When Woods finally declared his intention to play, tournament
officials began reassessing whether they had enough security,
souvenirs, volunteers, buses and concessions. The answer across
the board was no. Reinforcements were brought in.
Security is a particular concern when a player of Woods' stature
is playing.
"We have increased security, as we do for all the premier
players," Pulchinski said. "We have security measures
in place. It's just a matter of beefing those areas up. It's not
always with uniformed escorts, either, so people don't know. We
don't want to make it a police state."
Woods' popularity has been -fueled by his distinguished amateur
record in concert with his nonpareil professional debut. Last
August, he won an unprecedented third consecutive U.S. Amateur
Championship.
In the intervening months, he has won three PGA Tour events
in 11 starts and has finished in the top five in seven of them.
He also has won one international tournament, the Asian Classic.
The Nissan Open has a gilded field that includes Fred Couples,
Corey Pavin, defending champion Craig Stadler, John Daly, Tom
Lehman, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo and Tom Watson.
Yet they represent a sideshow to the main attraction, Tiger Woods,
ticket salesman extraordinaire.
"Put another 10 (thousand) to 15,000 people out there,"
Pulchinski said, "and it's going to be crowded."
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(c) 1997, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).
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