Diamond Resorts Invitational May Be Most Fun PGA Tour Champions Event
The Diamond Resorts Invitational brings together stars from all over sports and entertainment, and it’s become the most fun event on the PGA TOUR Champions schedule.
Last year when the Diamond Resorts Invitational/PGA Tour Champions pro-am event debuted on the actual Champions calendar, maybe, like me, you didn’t understand how much fun this one could be. It has great potential to become a fan favorite because it mixes PGA Tour Champions players, a few LPGA Players, fun celebrities and sports stars.
The 2017 edition included comedian Larry the Cable Guy, football stars like Superbowl MVPs like Marcus Allen and Mark Rypien, baseball stars like Bret Saberhagen, Tom Glavine, Roger Clemens, and maybe the best actor-golfer since Bing Crosby, Jack Wagner, along with golfers you know like John Cook, John Daly, Jeff Sluman, Lee Janzen, Mark Calcavecchia, Colin Montgomerie, Lexi Thompson, Brooke Henderson, Blair O’Neal, Brittany Lang and Brittany Lincicome.
This year, Allen and Rypien are both back, and joining them for certain are country-western stars Colt Ford and Lee Brice and PGA Tour Champions players John Cook and Grant Waite. Ford may be a closet favorite in the celebrity category because he played college golf.
Eric Gagne, Dan Plesac, Danny Kanell, Sterling Sharpe, Ryan Longwell have committed as has defending champ, a character in his own right, Woody Austin. You remember Austin. He’s the guy who once bent his putter by hitting himself in the head.
And at the 2007 Presidents Cup he fell into a water hazard and was subsequently dubbed Aquaman by the team. Two days later, he wore goggles after teeing off.
Diamond Resorts Invitational breaks barriers between sports and entertainment
The athletes are looking forward to it, although golf is not their first sport.
“I think running against a goal line defense with several guys on block is easier than golf sometimes,” said Allen in a late December press conference with several stars who will play. “With golf, if you don’t learn the fundamentals initially, you’re kind of, you’re starting from a staggered start, because obviously you have to break a lot of bad habits.”
"“Golf has opened a lot of doors for me,” said Rypien. “I used to be a hack. When I got to the Redskins, I played every day my first year there for 90 days, went from a 20‑plus handicap to a single digit in 90 days.”"
Singer/songwriter Colt Ford, whose name in real life is Jason Brown, should be a dark horse for the celeb category because he played collegiate golf at the university of Georgia and then spent a few seasons trying to get to the PGA Tour. He played on the Hogan tour, which was the original Web.com Tour in 1990.
To make matters interesting, they all play from the same tees. So, if you are Jack Wagner, how will you feel if Lexi Thompson waxes you with her drive? She’s not going to outdistance John Daly, but against a normal guy, she’s going to tie or beat a number of times.
She’s not the only LPGA long hitter. Brittany Lincicome is 11th on the LPGA in driving distance, averaging just four yards short of Thompson. Brooke Henderson averages ten yards shorter than Thompson. That means there are plenty of chances for the ladies to out drive the guys.
How does it all work?
To make matters strange, the Diamond Resorts Invitational will use the Stableford scoring system. That’s where you get points based on your score. For instance, it might be 1 point for a par, 3 points for a birdie and 0 points for a bogey as it was last year. The goal was to have the most points, instead of, as in regular stroke play, having the least points.
Last year’s winner, the popular and sometimes a little hard on himself Woody Austin, won with 104 points. Lexi Thompson finished 11th with an 83. She beat all the other women and finished three places ahead of Colin Montgomerie who was 14th and accumulated 78 points. John Daly was 17th with 77 points.
Celebrity champ in 2017 was Mark Mulder, former All-Star pitcher, who also won his third American Century Championship last July.
Everybody else is yet to be announced, but they have time since the fun at this tournament doesn’t start until January 12. Each threesome will include one PGA Tour Champions or LPGA Tour player and two celebrities. They all play their own ball, and the scoring is divided into professional and celebrity categories.
Next: Jordan Spieth engaged to long-time girlfriend Annie Verret?
Really, Diamond Resorts is to be congratulated on this event. We need more tournaments that make golf look like fun and less that make it look like a U.S. Open grind.