PGA Tour Barbasol Championship execs feel the inaugural tourney last week "went about as well as they could have expected," according to Eric Wallace of the MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER. While attendance figures have yet to be released, Sunbelt Golf Corp. President & CEO John Cannon, whose company runs the event at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Grand National near Opelika, Ala., said that he "expects them to be near the PGA Tour's projection of 45,000-50,000 for the week." Cannon: "Working with the Tour on a first-year event in a new market, you have no idea, and they have all the historical data and knowledge to support projections. If we don’t meet that projection, we’ll be pretty close to it.” While he said that attendance "exceeded expectations from Thursday through Saturday, he felt the tournament likely fell short on Sunday, due in part to a strong afternoon thunderstorm that blew in as many leaders prepared to tee off." Wallace writes it is "hard to say exactly what the PGA Tour will want to see changed for next year’s tournament," but they are "plenty satisfied with how things went" (MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER, 7/21). In Alabama, Will Sammon writes there "was concern if there would be enough interest" in the tourney from locals, "especially considering" the event was the same week as SEC Football Media Days. Barbasol Championship Tournament Dir John Marovich said that between 5,000 and 12,000 fans "showed each day of the tournament from Thursday-Sunday." Sammon writes the event "was a success in its first year" from the players' perspective. Golfer Will Wilcox said, "It was great. The golf course is just fantastic. The condition of it was amazing" (OPELIKA-AUBURN NEWS, 7/21).
PLAYING THROUGH? POSTMEDIA NEWS' Scott Stinson writes it will "remain a tense 48 hours" for organizers of this week's PGA Tour RBC Canadian Open in Oakville, Ontario, as "almost all of the big names in the field also played [at the British Open] and were thus affected by the marathon second round that stretched over most of two days." Golf Canada's charter flight "was moved from a Sunday night departure to Monday night," so players are "expected to start arriving at Glen Abbey either on Tuesday or in time for the Wednesday pro-am." Still, there is "nothing stopping players who are entered in the field from pulling out once they have arrived on this side of the ocean, as has happened before, even with guests on the charter" (POSTMEDIA NEWS, 7/21).
