The 1981 Tucson Open might’ve attracted more big names than any sporting event in Tucson history — more than Tiger Woods at Dove Mountain, more than Joe DiMaggio at Hi Corbett Field, more than John Wooden at McKale Center.
Sam Snead played. So did Lee Trevino. Johnny Miller won it all.
The pro-am included Bob Hope, Yogi Berra, Charlie Pride and Stan Musial. PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman arrived on opening day and gravely announced that “golf is plateauing; the sport has had slow growth for 15 years.” (Boy, was he wrong).
Emcee Joe Garagiola told jokes on the first tee at Randolph North, laughing with baseball buddies Tommy Lasorda, Billy Martin, Steve Garvey and Tommy John.
The Tucson Conquistadores estimated that more than 100,000 people walked through the gates that week as Miller, the famed Desert Fox, won his fourth Tucson Open in a field that included future TV golf analysts Peter Jacobsen, Curtis Strange, John Cook, Lanny Wadkins and Andy North.
With all of that star power, few paid much attention to first-time Tucson Open golfer Scott Hoch, then a 25-year-old wannabe from Wake Forest. Well, few except for an armed robber who broke into Hoch’s downtown hotel room, pulled a gun, tied up Hoch and his wife, Sally, and left with their jewelry and about $80.
Undeterred, Hoch finished 44th and was paid $867.
Whether it was the golf, the weather or the lure of winning more money — he went on to earn $102,534 at Tucson Opens from 1981-1998 — Hoch kept coming back to Tucson.
When the PGA Champions Tour’s Cologuard Classic tees off Friday at Tucson National, Scott Hoch, now 63, winner of more than $28 million in his golf career, will be the Dean of the Field.
He has come a long way from his 1981 Tucson debut, and that’s the lure of the Cologuard Classic. We know these guys. We’ve gone through their highs and lows, we know their names and know their stories.
It’s the Welcome Back Tour.
A year after Hoch’s Tucson debut, future Masters and 1993 Tucson Open champion Larry Mize made his first golf appearance in Tucson. He missed the cut. He played in the first round with fellow first-timer Mark O’Meara, a future two-time Masters champion who also missed the 1982 cut at Randolph North. Welcome back, guys.
By 1983, more soon-to-be familiar names and faces like Hal Sutton arrived at Randolph North for the first time. Few could’ve imagined that Sutton, who won a modest $858 in Tucson that year, would go on to win the 1983 PGA Championship. He’s back, too.
There is no more of the “soon-to-be-familiar” stuff at the Cologuard Classic. This year’s 78-man field is easily the most name-dropping group since the Conquistadores began operating the PGA Tour Champions event in 2015.
Fred Couples was the last exempt player to commit, on Friday. His first Tucson Open was 1982.
John Daly was awarded one of five sponsors exemptions. His Tucson Open debut was 1991.
Sabino High School grad Willie Wood, a former state champion, got the last sponsor’s exemption, on Friday. Wood played in nine Tucson Opens from 1987-2001.
Arizona’s 1989 NCAA golfer of the year, Robert Gamez, is returning to the site of his greatest triumph. He stunned all the veteran pros to win the 1989 Tucson Open in his first outing as a member of the PGA Tour.
David Berganio was a consensus All-American at Arizona in 1992, when he helped the Wildcats win the NCAA championship. He made his Tucson Open debut that year, missing the cut. He has not win a cent in five subsequent Tucson Opens. That should change. Playing in his first Champions Tour event, Berganio is guaranteed a paycheck if he completes all three rounds.
“This is our best field ever,” said Judy McDermott, executive director of the Conquistadores.
The first 32 players on the Champions Tour money list are in the field.
Who isn’t? Of the enduring names in Champions Tour golf, Vijay Singh is the only big name who won’t play in Tucson. Here’s a roll-call of champions among the champions:
Masters champions in the field: Mize, O’Meara, Sandy Lyle, Fred Couples, Jose Maria Olazabal, Bernhard Langer.
U.S. Open champions here this week: Lee Janzen, Tom Kite, Corey Pavin, Retief Goosen.
British Open champions in Tucson: Darren Clarke, John Daly, Marc Calcavecchia, Sandy Lyle.
PGA Champions at Tucson National: Sutton, Lyle, Jeff Sluman.
That’s 17 majors won. Oh, the stories they could tell.
Calcavecchia began his relationship with Tucson golf at the 1984 Seiko Tucson Match Play championships at Randolph North. A mix of snow, sleet and rain blew through town as Calcavecchia played T.C. Chen in a first-round match on January 2, 1984.
Calcavecchia ignored the cold and broke to a 7-up lead over Chen through nine holes. Then everything changed. Chen eliminated Calcavecchia in sudden death.
Calcavecchia, then 23, was stunned. “This day will stick in my mind for a long time,” he said. “It was a disaster.”
But after his first Tucson golf visit, Calcavecchia went on to earn $24 million on tour, winning 13 tournaments including the 1989 British Open. This week, at 58, Calcavecchia’s feelings toward Tucson have changed. He finished second here three times, earning $240,486.
Welcome back, Calc. There’s no more snow in the forecast.
