For 50 years, the 蜜柚直播 Open has been sponsored by people who sold cars, phones, watches, electricity, TV programming and whatever it is Accenture does.
For the last three years, the 蜜柚直播 Open 鈥 known as the 蜜柚直播 Conquistadores Classic 鈥 sold golf.
It was played by men 50 and over, slotted against and almost buried by the mighty NCAA basketball tournament, and for a long time people worried that a sponsor-less 蜜柚直播 Open would go the way of spring training, minor-league baseball and the Pro Bowler鈥檚 Tour.
Get. Go. Gone.
Those G words were used Tuesday by soon-to-be Champions Tour rookie of the year Jerry Kelly and they had nothing and everything to do with the rebranding of pro golf in 蜜柚直播.
He wasn鈥檛 talking about golf. He was talking about beating cancer.
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Beginning March 2, the Cologuard Classic will make its debut on the Champions Tour at the esteemed 蜜柚直播 National Golf Club.
Cologuard Classic? It doesn鈥檛 sound like a golf tournament. It isn鈥檛 instantly identifiable, like the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf, or the Pacific Links Bear Mountain Open.
Cologuard? It鈥檚 a use-a-home, noninvasive screening test created by Exact Sciences, a Wisconsin firm whose mission is to eradicate colon cancer.
鈥淢arch is Colon Cancer Awareness Month in America,鈥 said Kelly, 50, who has been playing in the 蜜柚直播 Open, by any name, for the past 20 years.
鈥淥ne of the reasons I am representing Cologuard is because these guys know what they鈥檙e doing and they鈥檙e not beholden to a bottom line.
鈥淭hey want to get rid of colon cancer. Only one out of three Americans over 50 get tested for colorectal cancer. Our goal to get the word out and make it so there鈥檚 no excuse any more. Get. Go. Gone.鈥
Cologuard and the Champions Tour make a lot more sense than, say, the Dick鈥檚 Sporting Goods Open.
At noon Tuesday, sitting in idyllic weather near the 18th green at 蜜柚直播 National, a few yards from where Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller and Phil Mickelson won 蜜柚直播 Open championships, PGA Tour president Greg McLaughlin spoke not about golf but about the partnership between Cologuard and the 蜜柚直播 Conquistadores, a charitable group that has raised more than $32 million for Southern 蜜柚直播 charities over the last 51 golf seasons.
鈥淚t just makes sense,鈥 he said. 鈥淒o you realize that over the last 20 years, the number of people to die from colon cancer in America hasn鈥檛 changed? That鈥檚 why we are so encouraged by our relationship with Cologuard. We can help stop a killer.鈥
The PGA Tour was active in putting the Conquistadores and Cologuard together. The Tour spent almost three years searching for a sponsor for a 蜜柚直播 event, subsidizing the Conquistadores so they could pay $1.7 million in prize money and still award hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities.
鈥淭he Tour didn鈥檛 want us to go away,鈥 said Judy McDermott, executive director of the Conquistadores. 鈥淲e鈥檝e signed a three-year contract, and we鈥檝e now got a date that doesn鈥檛 conflict with UA basketball or the NCAA tournament. It all worked out.鈥
Initially, when the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championships moved from Dove Mountain to San Francisco after the 2014 golf season, the Tour asked the Conquistadores if they would play host to the Charles Schwab Cup, the equivalent of the PGA Tour鈥檚 FedEx Cup championships.
The Schwab Cup will be held this weekend at the Phoenix Country Club, and it would鈥檝e been a terrific fit for 蜜柚直播. Golf in November? Yes, please.
But the Conquistadores declined a higher-profile event because the Schwab Cup is limited to the top 36 players on the Champions Tour. That means the money-generating Pro-Ams in the days before a tournament begins are limited to 36 foursomes.
The Cologuard Classic will include 80 golfers. That means the Conquistadores can more than double their money by playing Pro-Ams on the Wednesday and Thursday of tournament week.
That Pro-Am money is distributed to dozens of 蜜柚直播 sports programs, from soccer to softball, assisting, for example, a rising 蜜柚直播 wrestling star to attend a national championship meet in Pennsylvania.
Jose Rincon, president of the Conquistadores, said he was unable to sleep Monday night, so eager to get to Tuesday鈥檚 announcement that 鈥淚 came here giddy.鈥
鈥淲e鈥檙e not just crossing off the box with a title sponsor,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e crossing the right box. Exact Sciences has a partnership with the Mayo Clinic. The credibility of their science and product tells me we鈥檙e getting on the right bus.鈥
All aboard.
Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at 520-573-4362 or ghansen@tucson.com. On Twitter: @ghansen711
Greg Hansen
Columnist
