The PGA Tour says it loves Sacramento.
Sacramentans love pro golf and turn out for tournaments.
It seems to be a gimme that those two components would add up to a PGA Tour-sanctioned event in the climate-friendly California capital.
But talk remains cheap, corporate sponsorships remain slippery, and a pairing of a course and a tournament remains elusive.
"If you were to start a tour today, Sacramento would be a city you would want to get an event," Brian Goin said Wednesday. Goin ran the PGA Tour's Players Championship for 10 years and is its vice president of championship management.
The PGA Tour has had discussions with representatives of Del Paso Country Club about hosting the Champions Tour season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, Goin confirmed. The talks were within the past two months but are only preliminary, he said. Sonoma Golf Club will again host the event this fall and has a deal in principle for next year. The Schwab Cup is slated to move to Harding Park in San Francisco for 2010 and 2011.
Where that leaves Sacramento and Del Paso is a little fuzzy.
"I've done a lot of fishing in Northern California recently," Goin said. "If the Schwab Cup stays in the Bay Area, that doesn't take away the possibility of an event for Sacramento."
Sacramento hasn't been home to major-league golf since the LPGA left the area in 2006 after a 10-year run that included tournaments at Catta Verdera, the Ridge and Lincoln Hills. The Champions Tour left the area in 2002 after a 15-year run at Rancho Murieta and Serrano. Talks in 2002 about bringing a Nationwide Tour event to Sacramento fizzled.
Del Paso – the 30-year home of the Swing at Cancer, a precursor to the Senior Tour – is amenable to Schwab Cup talks, said head pro Mike Green.
Goin, speaking from Birmingham, Ala., where the Champions Tour plays the Regions Charity Classic this week, said Del Paso works better than some other courses farther from the city's center but remains untested from a competition standpoint.
"If you look at some of the places where (PGA Tour-sanctioned events are played), Sacramento has plenty to bring to the table," Goin said. "But you need facilities where corporate sponsors are comfortable enough to bring their clients. One hundred guests for four days doesn't work if there's an hour drive each way involved."
So, Sacramento remains in the PGA Tour's sights, if only in its peripheral vision.
Ace trumps all
Daniel Ng made a hole in one May 5 on the par-4, 16th at Wildhorse in Davis.
An assistant pro at the course, he hit a driver on the 305-yard hole, riding the left-to-right wind to the front pin.
"I hit it just like I pictured in my mind," Ng said. "I wanted to take a smooth swing, get it up into the wind and land it five yards short of the green."
Ng won $34 for a skin in Wildhorse's regular noon game. He also got $100 from a bonus pool his group keeps.
"That paid for all the pitchers," Ng said. It's assumed he meant beer.
It was the first ace for the 34-year-old former tennis player who took up golf two years ago. Tim Richards, a fellow Wildhorse assistant, gave Ng his first job, at Bing Maloney.
"I used to give him seven shots a side, and now he's beating me on occasion," Richards said. "He's a nut about the game. He would play every day if he could."
Min Wook-Woo was the day's biggest loser, even after shooting a 9-under-par 63.
"He was in my group, and nobody even said anything to him," said Ng, who shot a 70. "I apologized. I said, 'I'm really sorry I stole your thunder.' "
Open-minded
Here are players with area connections who this week survived local qualifying for the U.S. Open (men's and women's). Sectional qualifying begins May 26.
Men: Travis Esway in San Martin; amateur Jeff Wilson in Santa Rosa; Brad Bell, Jarod Abraham, amateur Nate Pistacchio, Craig Howard and Jeff Wood in Sacramento. Dillon Dougherty in Chesterton, Ind., is a first alternate.
Women: Kim Welch in St. Louis; amateur Tracy Nichols in Half Moon Bay. Amateur Samantha Saffold in Half Moon Bay is an alternate.
Women mean business
Suzanne Woo, the author of "On Course for Business: Women & Golf," will spend all day June 4 at Mather detailing how golf benefits businesswomen. The cost – including lunch, a seminar, a clinic and a nine-hole scramble – is $99 per person ($79 each for three or more). The 9 a.m.-noon seminar is $49 ($39 for three or more). Call (916) 364-4354 or go to www.playmather.com for more information.
Call The Bee's Steve Pajak, (916) 326-5526.
