SNOQUALMIE — In a PGA Tour career spanning the better part of three decades, Curtis Strange played in more than 500 tournaments around the United States. That meant multiple visits to tourneys in frequent golf-stop states like California, Texas, Florida and North Carolina.
Not once, though, did Strange enter a regular tour event in the state of Washington.
“It’s a place we didn’t ever get to in our years on tour,” said Strange, who’s in the field for this week’s Boeing Classic at Jack Nicklaus-designed TPC Snoqualmie Ridge. “They used to come to Portland and Seattle before my time (back in the 1960s), and then they stopped. But if you look at this market up here, are you kidding? Look at the people. The fans, the players.
“I wish we could’ve gotten up here (on the PGA Tour),” he said. “But now we’re here as seniors and it’s great. I love this place.”
Strange, a Virginia native who missed the 1998 PGA Championship and the 2002 NEC Championship, both at Redmond’s Sahalee Country Club, has played golf on recreational visits to the Puget Sound area, as well as occasional pro-ams. But his first taste of tournament golf was at last year’s Boeing Classic and he savored the experience.
“This is a beautiful place,” he said, gesturing at the nearby Cascade Mountain foothills. “The people are so nice and they really appreciate their golf. And this is a good golf course. So it’s all of the above.”
Strange’s comments echo those of other tour pros on their various visits to the region. Several competitors at both the 1998 PGA and the 2002 NEC, for instance, said they regretted the absence of a regular PGA Tour stop in the Pacific Northwest.
Seniors on the 50-and-over Champions Tour, though, can enjoy an annual two-week August swing to Oregon and Washington. A week ago they were in Sunriver, Ore., outside of Bend, for the JELD-WEN Tradition, and this week in the Seattle area for the Boeing Classic.
Next week, the Champions Tour visits Pebble Beach, Calif., for the Wal-Mart First Tee Open, “and you can’t get any prettier than these three weeks,” golfer Tom Purtzer said.
“The thing that gets me is that you’re struck by the beauty of the scenery,” he went on. “In Bend and here, you’ve got the mountains and the pine trees, and it just doesn’t get much prettier than that. And then at Pebble Beach you’ve got the ocean. So this is definitely the prettiest swing we play all year.”
The beauty of the region combined with the generally cooler temperatures is a big reason why the Northwest swing is so popular with the senior golfers. A few even show up in RVs just so they can enjoy the landscape as they travel.
“There’s kind of a calm sense of being up here,” said Boeing Classic executive director Chuck Nelson, an Everett native. “And the Champions Tour is a great fit for that. These guys are really competitive, but they also enjoy being out and around, and seeing different parts of the country. They’re out here because they enjoy it and they like coming here.”
This is the fourth year of the Boeing Classic, and the tournament continues to prosper and grow. The event “ranks very high” in attendance and charitable contributions, compared to other Champions Tour stops, Nelson said.
“These guys like the golf course and they very much enjoy the big crowds and the community support,” he said. “Amongst Champions Tour tournaments we do pretty well when it comes to the size of the crowds, and they still like putting on a show for people. Not just shooting good scores, but also having people watching. And that’s a big part of why they come back here.”
This year’s tournament attracted 900 volunteers, a record, which means “people are getting used to it being on the calendar,” Nelson said.
Just as the pros are getting used to coming back.
“In the rest of the country it’s pretty hot (right now), but then you come up here and this is wonderful,” Strange said.
“And the beauty here is pretty neat,” agreed defending champion Denis Watson. “I mean, look at this. It’s exceptional. It’s absolutely gorgeous here.”
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