Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 7, 1994 TAG: 9407070132
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JOE MACENKA ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The marquee players traditionally have skipped the event at Kingsmill Golf Club, either because it traditionally falls one week before the British Open or because they don't like to play in oppressive heat and humidity.
That hasn't changed this year. Of the top 52 players on the PGA's 1994 money list, only 10 are at Kingsmill this week. The highest on that list is No.14 Ben Crenshaw.
The lack of big-name players traditionally has made Kingsmill a productive stop for younger players looking to make a significant step up the career ladder. Those who have gotten their first tour victories at the rolling layout along the James River include Mike Donald, Mark Wiebe and Tom Sieckmann.
However, not even a $1.1 million purse and a lack of heavy hitters seem to be enough to lure the tour's rank-and-file this year.
There are 156 spots in the event, but as of late Wednesday afternoon the starting field was 154.
The tournament originally was set for a full field, but when six players withdrew this week, tour officials discovered only four players had signed up in time to qualify as alternates.
``This doesn't happen very often,'' your spokesman Marty Caffey said of having less than a full field for one of the circuit's 43 regular annual events.
Curtis Strange, who lives on the grounds of the sprawling Kingsmill resort, has done his share of locker-room promotion through the years in an attempt to get his peers to come to Williamsburg.
``A couple of the young guys who aren't here and aren't going to the British Open - I don't know what their reasons are,'' Strange said. `I think the weather has something to do with it. It certainly isn't the hospitality or the golf course or anything like that.''
Indeed, the 6,797-yard layout is in excellent shape and has escaped the massive winter kill that has plagued many courses throughout the East this year.
And Kingsmill continues to be one of the most hospitable stops on the tour. For example, tournament organizers once again have chartered two jets to fly players to Boston as soon as the tournament ends Sunday so they can catch a direct flight to Glasgow and be at the British Open on Monday morning.
``It's nice that they do that,'' Davis Love III said. ``It's certainly a factor, and it makes it easier to commit to coming here. It's hard to play right over at the British if you don't get there by Monday morning.''
Jim Gallagher Jr., the 1993 Anheuser-Busch champion, winces at talk of players who don't think Kingsmill is a prudent scheduling move. Gallagher, who lives in Mississippi, especially doesn't want to hear complaints about the weather.
``Let's see,'' he said. ``This is the South and it is the summer, right? So shouldn't it be hot?''
by CNB