WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS - The Old White Course will be a bit more difficult for next year's Greenbrier Classic, Greenbrier owner Jim Justice said Sunday.
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS - The Old White Course will be a bit more difficult for next year's Greenbrier Classic, Greenbrier owner Jim Justice said Sunday.
Not that Justice disapproved of the birdie barrage at the inaugural event, which concluded Sunday.
"In my world,'' said Justice, "the fans love to see birdies. I mean, they love to see birdies. It adds a lot of excitement to it.''
Justice prefers low scores to the tedium of the U.S. Open, where par is sometimes good enough.
"Really and truly,'' he said, "I don't want to see the players chipping it back into the fairways out of the rough, U.S. Open-style, and with the greens hard as a brick bat.''
Nevertheless, Justice said The Greenbrier probably will lengthen the 7,031-yard Old White, and the fairways likely will be somewhat tighter.
"We added a couple hundred yards of length this year,'' he said. "There's probably a real good chance that we'll add another two, three hundred yards to the length. We may pinch the fairways in just a little bit.''
All in all, the first-year PGA Tour event went well and, in fact, may have exceeded expectations.
"For the first crack out of the box,'' said Justice, "I think the players have been really pleased with the condition of the course and the architecture and all that. And I love to see birdies. I honestly don't see how in the world anything could have gone much better. The crowds are off the chart; the players are loving the course. You talk about everyone paddling the boat. Everybody's done wonderful. It's just what I hoped it would be. I sure don't want to sound egotistical or braggadocios because that's not me. But the whole thing has gone as well or better than I ever could have dreamed it would have gone.''
He also believes next year's field will include more prominent players, largely because of the success of the inaugural event.
"I'll promise you to the Lord above that there are players sitting at home saying, 'Why in the world did we not go to this event?' I mean, look at the people,'' said the owner. "Not to take anything away from other events that are going on, but you've seen events where there's nine people walking around the course. And these players love the fans, and they have to be talking. Next year, I think it'll get better and better.''
And not having crowd-favorites Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson this year probably worked out for the best, he said.
"I would say from the get-go that it's better this way,'' he said. "If we had had Phil and Tiger, what could we look forward to? Let's walk before we run.''
At a Sunday afternoon press conference not far from the 18th green, Justice commented on other subjects:
On the prospect of bringing a major tournament to The Greenbrier: "I won't stop - if God gives me breath - till [the PGA people] come to me and tell me this is the best event they have on the PGA Tour. And I'm telling you, there's a lot of stuff right now that they're already are saying is the best they have. But to have a major here, we probably need to add a little more length, and there's ways to do that out there. But we want to walk before we run. Let's step away from this and try to clean up our mistakes. There's got to be things that are wrong that we want to make better.''On the potential economic impact of the tournament: "I've heard like 92 gazillion ... When the economic impact of this whole thing comes out, it will be incredible. It may be the biggest event that's ever happened to West Virginia. This is all about bringing the community back and helping people.''On possible innovations or changes at The Greenbrier: "There are some things on the horizon we're sure thinking about. But I'd like to take my breath, you know. We're working on it, and we're creating jobs and we're doing some things that sure make you feel good, that's for sure.''On his upgrades at The Greenbrier compared to what Marriott, which had considered buying the resort, had planned: "Not to take anything away from the Marriott, they're a great company, but they told everybody here [if they bought The Greenbrier] that the employment was going from 700 to 900. We've got 1,850 employed right now, and we've got 400 jobs posted right as we speak. We're looking for people right now.''On possible exemptions into the Greenbrier Classic for the winners of next year's West Virginia Amateur and West Virginia Open (only the Amateur winner was exempted this year): "I think we'll do 'em both next year. Yeah, I think we'll do 'em both.''On the specially designed Greenbrier Classic trophy: "It cost $220,000. It's made out of really, really special stuff.''Reach Mike Whiteford at 304-348-7948 or mikewhitef...@wvgazette.com.
