We Got the Courses, Where are the Golfers?

By Alan Kleinfeld, 8-19-06

The renowned Booz Allen Golf Classic (formally the Kemper Open) took place for the third decade in a row during the third week of June, 2006 in Potomac, Maryland. I was there. When I signed up to be a volunteer and reserved my uniform, I didn’t know I would be living in Albuquerque and since we don’t have anything remotely close to a PGA Tour event here, I decided that even though I live over 2000 miles away, I would follow through with my commitment to work the 2006 Booz Allen.

I’m glad I did. Now it’s time that we bring a nationally ranked tournament back to Albuquerque. Some years ago we hosted the Nike Tour. It’s to the PGA Tour what the Isotopes are to Major League Baseball. The Nike Tour had some great players. Both young guys testing the waters as well as some of the real pros, recovering from surgery. I met Tommy Armour III and Bob May, both still PGA Tour pros.

Some years before that we had the Sunwest Bank Charley Pride Senior Golf Tournament. As I recall, that was a true Senior PGA Tour event. It brought in top players like Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Fuzzy Zoeller. It was world class. It was great!

For the Booz Allen, I was on the transportation committee. We’re a lucky bunch in that we drive the players and their families from the airport to the hotel to the golf course and so on. What’s incredibly neat about it is you might end up spending an hour on the road with someone like Fred Funk or Paul Azinger or Brad Faxon or Corey Pavin. To those not in the know, these guys are big time PGA pros, highly ranked and highly paid.

One volunteer, a guy named Ken, had been on the transportation committee for over 20 years and had, by coincidence, driven one golfer in particular for every year he played in the Booz Allen. Now Ken and Blaine McCallister are best of friends. So good in fact, that Blaine invited Ken to his home in Florida and then to a round of golf at the world famous TPC at Sawgrass.

There are other committees, too. There’s scoring, security, course marshals, and so forth. Another cool thing about the Booz Allen is that it’s televised. So what you’ve seen on TV when you’ve watched golf (large galleries dwarfed by TV towers and cameras on booms) you get to witness in person and see how it all comes together.

So when is Albuquerque going to get another shot at hosting a “real” golf tournament? Isn’t it high time? We’re bigger now, with more opportunities for sponsorship, volunteers and spectators. It’ll be good for tourism, the city’s reputation and the economy. On top of all that, it’s just really cool. Hey, if we do this, I promise to volunteer. As long as I get to pick up Tiger.
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