GHO is just another Buick
You can bemoan the fact that another long-time PGA Tour event is now going by a corporate name. Or you can accept that it would likely no longer exist if not for such a change.
For all of those involved in the tournament, it will take awhile for the words "Greater Hartford Open" to be purged from their tongues. Its new name, the Buick Championship, will take some getting used to.
Figuring out which tournaments Buick sponsors will continue to be a challenge for the golf-following public.
The tournament that is played this weekend at the TPC of River Highlands near Hartford was in trouble just a year ago after Canon, the sponsor for 18 years, dropped out. Organizers put the event on for a year without such help, begging and pleading along the way, until the PGA Tour helped bring Buick, its biggest sponsor on tour, to the table.
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 This week: Buick Championship Site: Cromwell, Conn. Course: Firestone Country Club, South Course (6,820 yards, par 70). Purse: $4 million (Winner: $720,000) Television: Thursday: 4-6 p.m. ET (USA) Friday: 4-6 p.m. ET (USA) Saturday: 3-6 p.m. ET (CBS) Sunday: 3-6 p.m. ET (CBS) Defending champ: Peter Jacobsen
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Buick has been affiliated with the tour in some form since 1958. And the company doesn't seem to mind at all that there might be confusion to some about the different events it sponsors. Quick: Which tournament did John Daly win earlier this year? That would be the Buick Invitational, which is played near San Diego.
The company also sponsors the Buick Classic in Westchester, N.Y.; its original Buick Open, near company headquarters, in Warwick Hills, Mich.; and now the Buick Championship. Winning all four in the same year wouldn't be considered a Grand Slam, but maybe a Buick Bash?
Buick is also the official car of the PGA Tour, has a national amateur tournament called the Buick Scramble, and is affiliated with the PGA of America and the Ryder Cup. And, of course, it has a huge endorsement deal with Tiger Woods.
Obviously the company likes getting its name out there as often as possible. Tournament officials are disappointed with the lack of star quality in this week's field, but that is to be expected following a major championship and World Golf Championship event.
That should change in the future. In 2006, Hartford is expected to move to late June.
"Dates are extremely important. It's one of the single biggest factors that attract a strong field of players," Larry Peck, Buick's manager of golf marketing, told the Connecticut Post. "We like dates earlier in the season. Fan interest is a little higher from a national standpoint and it wanes the further you get down. We're not a big fan of fourth-quarter golf.
"I personally think the season's too long, and you can see it on TV ratings and everything else that they tend to go down in the fourth quarter of the year. You're fighting too much [college and NFL football, baseball playoffs]."
That helps explain why Buick left the Buick Challenge in Georgia a few years ago. At one time, the company was slated to take over the last full-season event near Tampa, but backed out. (That is now called the Chrysler Championship.)
To many, this week's event will still be referred to as Hartford. It's the way of the golf world -- and the only way these tournaments exist.
Moore is the first player to ever win the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Amateur Public Links titles in the same year. He also captured the NCAA individual title, the Western Amateur and the Mountain West Conference title. His feat is being compared to the greatest amateur season ever, when Bobby Jones won the U.S. Amateur and Open and British Amateur and Open in 1930. Moore will get invitations to next year's Masters, U.S. Open and British Open because of his victories. |
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 Got a question about the PGA Tour? Ask ESPN.com golf writer Bob Harig, who will answer your inquiries in each installment of This Week in Golf.
Q. Why is golf not an event in the Olympics? It seems to me it would be easy to have some type of match-play scenario to determine the top 3 players.
A. There was a movement to make golf a demonstration sport at the 1996 Olympics, with the competition to be played at Augusta National. That would have been incredible for golf and the Olympics, but organizers got scared due to Augusta's membership policies. And there was talk of getting golf as a demonstration sport in 2008, but the idea fell through. Golf, which already has events around the world, and the Olympics face many problems. Getting the best players in the world to sign on would be quite difficult. There is already a Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup every other year. Each year, there is a World Cup team event. And what would happen to the regular PGA Tour events during the Olympics? They would be weakened if the best players in the world are at the Olympics.
Q. I have grown up a Justin Leonard fan. Has he destroyed his reputation as a solid pressure player by throwing away two of the last three PGA Championships?
A. Given the way he has played this year, Leonard probably had no business contending at the PGA. His only top-10 of the year previously came in February. Leonard has let two PGAs and a British Open get away, but he has not been at the top of his game during the two PGAs. He was working through swing changes in 2002 when he had a 54-hole lead but shot 77. That doesn't mean Leonard won't lament the opportunities he let get away.
Q. Who do you think European captain Bernhard Langer should select as his two captain's picks for this year's Ryder Cup? It seems as though there are several fairly young European golfers that may qualify automatically, so do you think Bernhard will pick more experienced golfers to balance the team out?
Q. I have heard that Vijay Singh got kicked off the Asian Tour because he got caught cheating. Can you set the record straight for me?
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Bob Harig covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times and is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at harig@sptimes.com.
