WinCo Foods Portland Open happening despite COVID-19 challenges
Even though no spectators will be allowed Portland is the only tournament staging a pro-am which is almost full at 100 foursomes
For the Pamplin Media Group by Kerry Eggers
Jeff Sanders, a Portland native, is executive vice president for golf events for Sportfive.
Over the past few years, Jeff Sanders' Lagardere Sports team has created a "golf festival" model — food, wine and golf — that has resonated with fans and officials of the PGA and Korn Ferry tours.
That won't happen at Pumpkin Ridge from August 6-9 when the seventh annual Winco Foods Open takes place.
There will be golfers, caddies, volunteers and even some media, but no spectators.
"We can't implement (the golf festival) this year," said Jeff Sanders, executive vice president/golf events for Sportfive, a global sports and entertainment industry that purchased Lagardere Sports in the last two months. "That has to go on ice for now. It doesn't work from a social distancing standpoint."
Sanders wanted desperately to have fans at this year's event. He had Tower of Power lined up to perform after Saturday's play. For some time, Sanders has communicated with PGA Tour and Winco Foods officials over the situation with the coronavirus pandemic.
"I've never spent so much time on the telephone," Sanders said. "I've been living on Zoom for three months."
Then came word that spectators would not be allowed. Golf Channel will cover all four days of the tournament proper, and there will be two days of pro-ams. But no fans. No hospitality tents. No beer and wine garden adjacent to hole No. 12.
"It's very disappointing, but it's a decision in the last month or so that became easier to make," Sanders said. "It's the right thing to do for the health and safety of everyone — the players, the volunteers, the fans, and everyone.
"We had to take as much risk as possible out of the equation, yet still play the tournament, put it on television and keep going the best we can."
With the event looming less than a month away, "we had to make a decision one way or the other," Sanders said.
"From an operational standpoint, in order to put everything together for your fans, you have to have a couple of months notice," he said. "We didn't want to build a bunch of hospitality venues and have them sit empty because of the pandemic.
"Winco Foods was great about this. They're being very careful. We'll try to put on a great event for the players this one time and hopefully by next time, we won't have to do that."
Sportfive operates three tournaments over the next 2 1/2 months — the Winco Foods Portland Open and the Albertsons Boise Open Aug. 13-16 (both Korn Ferry) and the Safeway Open Sept. 26-29 at Napa, California (PGA Tour). Portland is the only one that will stage pro-ams. Sanders said the pro-am field is "almost full" with nearly 100 foursomes over two days.
Coronavirus testing will be stringent — and daily — at Pumpkin Ridge.
"Everyone gets tested inside the 'bubble' — players, caddies, volunteers, (Sportfive) employees, PGA tour and Golf Network officials," Sanders said. "Anyone who tests positive must immediately leave the property and go into 14-day quarantine."
Ten Korn Ferry tournaments were canceled due to the pandemic. Four have now been staged since then, beginning with the Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, from June 11-14.
"You learn (about handling the pandemic) from every tournament before you," Sanders said, "and we still have some tournaments ahead of us that we can learn from, also.
"But things change on a daily basis. This whole thing is new to everybody. It's like we're starting over. It's No. 250 or so (tournaments since Sanders began promoting golf) for us, but it feels like No. 1. It's the Covid-19 model we've never had to execute until now."
With no fans, volunteer numbers will drop from about 1,000 to 250. The focus is on the television coverage, something that has been a godsend for both tournament officials and fans of the sport since the pandemic hit.
CBS Sports reports that last Sunday's final-round coverage of the Rocket Mortgage Classic (in Detroit) achieved a 56 percent rise in viewership over last year with nearly 2.9 million viewers. Overall, with fans not allowed on the various courses, TV viewership for the network's four PGA Tour events since the return of golf in June are up 25 percent from a year ago.
"The TV ratings right now in golf are off the charts," Sanders said. "We want to create value for our sponsors, and the only way is through the TV broadcasts. There's not much else out there in terms of live sports right now . It's amazing how many people are watching golf."
Over its six years of existence, the Winco Foods Portland Open has raised a total of $7.5 million for local charities, almost half of that through ticket sales. The average figure will go down considerably this year.
"We're putting together a creative donation promotion that we'll post on our website to give our fans and sponsors an opportunity to support the charities," Sanders said. "We're not sure where we'll end up this year, but we're still hopeful to be able to make a nice contribution."
While tournaments on both tours are expected to be held through the rest of this year's schedule, Sanders said it is "very doubtful" any of them will be witnessed by spectators.
"The spike in the virus over the last few weeks has been significant, and there's no sign of it getting better," he said. "The risk is too high. I wouldn't be surprised if all the remaining tournaments did not have fans."
As the last regular-season tournament on the Korn Ferry circuit each year, Sanders has had the pleasure of presenting PGA Tour cards to the top 25 money-winners upon conclusion of the Winco Foods Portland Open. Not this year. The 2020 and '21 seasons are going to be combined.
"The players will get their cards here next year," Sanders said.
That's if the tournament returns. Winco Foods' contract as title sponsors ends this season.
"We're in discussions about the future," Sanders said.
The Korn Ferry Tour is a secondary circuit to the PGA Tour, featuring young up-and-comers, many of them who rise up to star on the PGA Tour. Sanders points to two of them — Dylan Wu and Will Zalatoris.
Wu led St. Mary's of Medford to three straight Oregon small-school championships before starring at Northwestern. He is currently sixth on the Korn Ferry money list with nearly $138,000 in earnings.
Zalatoris, No. 8 on the money list, won the TPC Colorado Championship last week.
"He's going to be a fantastic PGA Tour player," Sanders said. "Our field is going to be strong. Top to bottom, it's a lineup of great players."
Readers: did you attend the WinCo Foods Open in past years? Will you watch it on tv this year? Share your comments below.
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