WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — West Virginia’s only major professional sporting event is nearly a month away. A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier returns to the PGA Tour schedule next season and will be held September 9-15 at The Greenbrier’s Old White TPC Course.
For the first time in the event’s nine-year history, A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier will take place during football season.
West Virginia University, Virginia Tech and Marshall have home football games Saturday, September 14, which creates a dilemma for many sports fans within a reasonable driving distance.
“We’re not competing with football; we’re embracing football,” said Cam Huffman, Director of Public Relations and Content at The Greenbrier. “There will be plenty of televisions throughout the course to take a break from watching golf.
“High school football is later Friday. Saturday is the ultimate sports fan experience. You can watch golf, take a break to watch football, come back to the golf and then head to center court and watch some of the best tennis players in world. What an opportunity for sports fans that day.”
With the PGA Tour having redone its 2018-2019 schedule, A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier was not a part of this season. Instead, a tournament previously held the week of July 4 will be the first event of the 2019-2020 slate.
It remains to be seen what effect that has on the player field, though Huffman announced past major champions Bubba Watson and Jason Dufner have committed to play. He also said each of the eight past champions of the event are expected to play.
“We’ve heard players are incredibly excited,” Huffman said. “We loved the July 4th date, but we heard from a lot of players who said they couldn’t come that week because of various reasons.
“We know we’ll have a great field and it’ll pick up before too long. Everybody will have at least two weeks off before the Greenbrier and some three or four weeks off because of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Many of these players will be itching to go play at the start of the new season.”
Robert Harris, in his first year as Executive Tournament Director, believes players will soon start to organize their schedules for next season, giving the tournament a good idea of how strong its field will be.
“I think the players will come. The tournament in Greensboro last weekend was the last event for a lot of them,” Harris said. “The thought is today they’ll start planning for next year’s schedule. It’s a little like buying Christmas presents in October.”
A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier is also hoping to create a more fan-friendly experience. Harris said parking has been added within two miles of the course to accomodate fans from West Virginia and Virginia, many of whom previously parked at the state fairgrounds and had a 20-plus minute ride to and from the course on a shuttle bus.
“The new parking arrangement makes it very easy for locals to come to the tournament and get off-site and to their car in 15 minutes or less,” Harris said. “Right away that improves the fan experience since you’re not transporting around in a vehicle all day.”
Harris also noted that the tournament is adding bleachers, giving the event five sets of bleachers that can sit up to 600 spectators.
The change in date has made finding tournament volunteers more of a challenge, according to Harris, though he added they currently have more than 400 and are aiming for 600.
“We’ve upped the benefits and incentives for our volunteer package,” Harris said.
The Pro-Am that precedes the start of the tournament will fall on the 18th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and Huffman said there will be special measuers to honor America in remembrance of that day.
“We’ll stop play at 8:46 that morning to honor September 11 and there will be a moment of silence,” Huffman said. “There will also be a trumpeter and we’ll have a special rendition all around the course of “God Bless America.” Later that evening, we’ll have a parade of freedom in downtown White Sulphur Springs. It’ll be a really special time to honor our special country.”
“We adopted the motto serve those who have served us,” added Jill Justice, President of The Greenbrier. “It’s important to us. We believe in it and stand behind it.”
Notes: Tournament officials have discussed bringing back concerts at the state fairgrounds, which were previously connected to the golf tournament but haven’t been held since 2015. A Jake Owen show is scheduled for tournament sponsors this year. “Hopefully we get back to doing concerts at the fairgrounds,” Justice said, “but this year the focus was to kind of keep things on campus.” … The Greenbrier Champions Tennis Classic is September 13-14 at Creekside Stadium, but Huffman said Serena Williams can no longer make it due to a scheduling issue. Williams is being replaced by former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova. Others taking part include: Caroline Wozniacki, Jack Sock, Taylor Fitz and twin brothers Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan … Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush, is the tournament’s Honorary Chairman this year and will participate in the Pro-Am … The tournament’s contract with the PGA Tour currently runs through 2026. Harris said next year’s A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier will start one day after labor day — September 8, 2020 … A new trophy is being created on site for the tournament winner, and Harris said it should be finished within two weeks. “When you see it,” Harris said, “you’ll just go, ‘Wow.’”