Greg Hansen: Tucson fortunate that Conquistadores can withstand financial hit of pared-down tourney

In the weeks leading to the PGA Tour Champions’ Cologuard Classic, the sponsoring Conquistadores appealed to Pima County to permit about 2,500 fans at Tucson National. The county said no. It allowed just 200 fans per day.

The long-popular and profitable hospitality tents weren’t even built. All of the local and national firms whose sponsorship signs are normally prevalent in heavily-trafficked areas were missing. There wouldn’t be enough eyeballs to justify the buy-in.

Beer sales? Zip. There was no can’t-miss-it Saturday night concert on the driving range.

And so before the Cologuard Classic began, the Conquistadores had probably lost 65% of their income. The mid-week Pro-Ams — at which a coveted tee time costs $3,500 — were as profitable as ever, probably raising as much as $700,000, but the costs of staging a Champions Tour event go way beyond $700,000.

You’ve got to rent the golf course for a week during high-season rates. Even during a pandemic, you’ve got to pay for parking areas, dig deep for insurance coverage and a million other things,

The $1.7 million purse paid to the golfers is a cost shared by the Conquistadores, the Champions Tour and Golf Channel.

But if any organization in Tucson sports history can withstand the financial hit of a year without paying customers, it’s the Conquistadores.

Mike Weir has to hit from the bunker for the second straight hole on 17 during the final round of the Cologuard Classic at the Omni Tucson National Resort, Tucson, Ariz., February 28, 2021.
Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Since taking charge of pro golf in Tucson in 1965, the Conquistadores have raised more than $33 million for Southern Arizona charities via 62 golf tournaments — 42 PGA Tour events, five LPGA Tour events, eight World Golf Championship events and seven Champions Tour events.

Ultimately, donations to Tucson charities will be affected more by the pandemic than anything else. When Kevin Sutherland was paid $255,000 for winning Sunday’s championship at Tucson National, no one pulled him aside and said, “Wait a few days to cash that check, will you?”

Unlike the start-up era of Tucson’s pro golf event, the Conquistadores have been skilled enough to cover unexpected trouble.

The PGA Tour’s days in Tucson appeared to be numbered in 1964 when the sponsoring Tucson Golf Association could only manage to pay $30,000 in prize money. It didn’t have much to sell besides sunshine.

Arnold Palmer didn’t play. Jack Nicklaus didn’t bite. Sam Snead passed. The $30,000 purse was the smallest on the PGA Tour; West Coast events in Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs all paid $50,000.

In today’s money, that’s the difference between $250,000 and $425,000. The winner’s check was a bare $6,000. So many of the elite golf pros drove through Tucson on the way to the New Orleans Open. There was another problem: the venue, El Rio Golf Course, wasn’t viewed as worthy of a pro golf event.

Competition was so spotty that in 1964, Tucson golfer Jerry Mitchell shot rounds of 88-86-86-81 and finished 69 strokes behind winner Jackie Cupit.

As if on cue, the newly-formed Tucson Conquistadores stepped in. Their stated purpose was to save pro golf in Tucson.

By Justin Spears Arizona Daily Star

Iconic Tucson businessman Roy Drachman, the man most responsible for bringing spring training baseball to small-town Tucson in 1947, arranged a meeting at the old El Conquistador Hotel near Hi Corbett Field. Sixty of Tucson’s leading business professionals joined Drachman.

They raised the purse for the 1965 Tucson Open to $47,000 and, in a move that would change all of the optics, reached an agreement to play the ’65 tournament at the spectacular new Tucson National facility.

Two years later, Arnold Palmer won the title and record crowds estimated at 75,000 over four days showed up to march in “Arnie’s Army.”

It worked. It works.

The Conquistadores are survivors. They’ve weathered moves to Randolph North, Starr Pass, The Gallery and the Ritz-Carlton Club. They’ve played in November, January, February and March. They’ve been downsized by the PGA Tour, but hung tough until they were elevated to such heights that Tiger Woods won here in 2008.

They’ve gone through a period in which celebrities such as Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Barry Goldwater, Joe Louis, Bob Hope, Tommy Lasorda, Julius Erving and Glen Campbell played in the Pro-Am, to this year’s class of celebrities that included Larry Fitzgerald and John Smoltz.

About the only thing that has remained constant is the glorious Conquistadores’ winner’s helmet.

Over the weekend, the golden helmet was carefully placed on exhibit at the No. 1 tee. The idea for the helmet was hatched by Al Kivel, one of the original Conquistadores, who spent months trying to develop a suitable trophy. Ultimately, one of Kivel’s friends discovered the model for today’s helmet in Toledo, Spain, where it was manufactured until 1994.

About that time, Conquistador Jim Ronstadt arranged to have a Tucson firm, CAID, manufacture the helmet. Just to be careful, the Conquistadores ordered them made in bulk; there are five in reserve.

That should get the Cologuard Classic through 2026. Long before that, the party tents should be full, the shuttle buses should be running and Tucson’s long run in the business of pro golf should again be thriving.