Information on Traverse City, Michigan and the surrounding Northwest Michigan area

05/06/2007

PGA grants one-year hiatus to Par-3 Shootout

Popular summer event will return in 2008

GAYLORD — Organizers of the Par-3 Shootout, one of the most viewer-friendly golf telecasts of the season and a summer staple in northern Michigan, will take a one-year hiatus and return in 2008.

Granted by the PGA Tour, the hiatus from 2007 competition will allow tournament organizers time to secure a multi-year sponsorship agreement, according to Tony Renaud, vice president vice president of new business for ESPN and the executive overseeing the Par-3 Shootout at Treetops Resort.

The Par-3 Shootout has always been negotiated on the basis of one-year agreements between Treetops, ESPN and event sponsors. The hiatus will not only allow event organizers time to develop a multi-year agreement, but enter into partnerships with an annual title sponsor and secondary sponsors. Previous sponsors have included Tylenol, ING and Ford.

"With the annual timetable needed to put together such a high-quality golf event and having to renegotiate year after year, getting the details done in time to stage a first-class event can be an inconvenience to all parties,” said Rick Smith, the owner and managing partner of Treetops Resort. "We thought taking a year off and going back to create a long-term deal for the future would help us secure strong, long-term sponsorship partners as well as relieving the pressure of a short timetable we face every time we have to renegotiate annually.”

Officials from ESPN, which has televised the event in each of its eight years were understanding about the request for the hiatus.

"We love this event and look forward to growing it and continuing to have it as a major part of our commitment to golf in 2008,” Renaud said. "The Par-3 Shootout has always provided our viewers with precise, exciting golf in a spectacular setting and we see no reason why this won't continue next year.”

Over the past eight years, the Par-3 Shootout has attracted some of the game's greatest players, including Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Phil Mickelson, three-time winner and defending champion Fred Couples and Lee Trevino, the event's career money leader who earned a $1 million bonus when he carded an ace on the 7th hole of the Threetops Course in 2001.

The Rick Smith-designed "Threetops” Course was named by Travel & Leisure Magazine as the No. 1 par-3 course in the nation in their list of America's Top 5 Par-3 Courses in December of 2002. GolfWeek had previously rankied Threetops as America's best par-3 course. The course features holes that range from 135 to 216 yards with a 145-foot vertical drop on No. 3.