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Tournament Stats:
Bob Hope Chrysler ClassicJanuary 17 - 20, 2006
Classic Club (home course)
Palm Desert, California
Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,305 (Classic Club)
Other courses used
La Quinta CC - Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,060
Bermuda Dunes - Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,017
SilverRock - Par 72 / Yardage 7,578
Purse: $5 million with $900,000 going to the winner
Defending Champions: Charley Hoffman
List of Champions & Scores
Tournament facts:
Tournament Record:324 (Joe Durant in 2001)
72-Hole Record:
259 (Tim Herron in 2003, Joe Durant in 2001)
54-Hole Record:
193 (Joe Ogilvie in 2005, Joe Durant in 2001)
36-Hole Record:
126 (Joe Durant in 2001)
Low round of tournament:
59 (David Duval, 5th round, 1999)
Individual Course records:
Classic Club - 62 by Jesper Parnevik in 2006PGA West/Palmer Course - 59 by David Duval in 1999
La Quinta - 61 by Lennie Clements in 1994
Course information:
Classic Club - Course was designed by Arnold Palmer and opened in 2005Course was founded by a philanthropic four years again, the course was donated to the Bob Hope Classic in 2004. The plan is that by owning the course and staging the final day on the course it can help double the money donated to local charites. Not only will the event raise money for charity but the course, which is opened to the public will raise funds for Hope charities all-year round. It will have a big distinction as being along with Augusta National the only two courses used on the PGA Tour which the course owns the tournament.
The average green size at the Classic Club is 5,900 square feet and the course has 75 bunkers. 12 of the holes have water on, last year the course played to a 71.527 average making it the 36th toughest.
Other courses used in the rota:
Arnold Palmer Private Course at PGA West
La Quinta, Calif.
6,930 yards Par 36-36--72
Course has a 74.6 rating and slope rating of 140 from the championship tees
Course is private and not open to the public.
Course was designed by Arnold Palmer and was opened in 1987
The Palmer Course at PGA West will go down in history as the site of the lowest final round in golf. David Duval shot 59 to win the Hope three years ago and even though many may think that the course is easy, it isn't. Duval's round was probably one of the greatest rounds because he accomplished it on a course that shouldn't have a sub-60 round. If there is a weakness to this course, its the par 5s, but the heart of the course is it's par 4s which are long and play tough with five of them having water hazards on them.
The average green size at the Palmer course is 5,500 square feet and the course has 97 bunkers. Water comes in play on ten of the 18 holes. Last year the course played to a 69.567 average making it the 51st toughest.
La Quinta C.C.
La Quinta, Calif.
7,060 yards Par 36-36--72
Course has a 74.2 rating and slope rating of 136 fron the championship tees
Course is private and not open to the public
Course was designed by Billy Bell and Lawrence Hughes and was opened in 1959. In 1999 Robert Muir Graves and Damian Pascuzzo came in, rebuilt all of the greens, bunkers and tees. He has also taken all of the water hazards on the course and made them all come into play. The flagpole at the first tee is the official flagpole from the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley. It was given to La Quinta Country Club by the Novotny family in memory of Frank Capra.
The average green size at La Quinta is 5,500 square feet and the course has 101 bunkers. There are five water hazards on the course with 8 holes being effected. Last year the course played to a 70.929 average making it the 42nd hardest course on the PGA Tour.
SilverRock
La Quinta, Calif.
7,403 yards Par 36-36--72
Course has a 76.3 rating and slope rating of 139 from the championship tees
Course is public and open to the public.
Course was designed by Arnold Palmer and was opened in 2005
Silver Rock is another Arnold Palmer design, it can be stretched to close to 7,600 but for the pros this week it will play at 7,360 yards, which will give the pros a bit of a break in it's first year. Some of the key holes will be the fact that three of the par 5s will be over 570 yards and the other one will be at 544. Of the par 4s, four of them are over 480 yards with the 15th being played at 480 on the card but can be stretched to 525 yards, yes that isn't a misprint. The course is next to the Santa Rosa Mountains and should offer a good challenge for the players in which long hitters will have a big advantage. The average green size at SilverRock is 6,000 square feet and the course has 96 bunkers. This is the first time that it will be used during the Hope.
For a more comprehensive look at the course, look at this Course Overview done by PGA Tour.Com
The Buzz:
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Things have been drastically changing at the Hope and some of it not for the good.
Just 20 years ago this was a tournament that players like playing in. The field was loaded with not only PGA Tour stars but a list of top-notch celebrities. Unfortunely things started changing in the 90s when Bob Hope grew older and was unable to call in favors from players and celeb's. Along with that is the fact that players have changed.
With all the money on the table every week players realized that it's not in there best interest playing four different courses over five days. On top of that players have gotten more focused during tournaments and don't want to be distracted by amateurs and since they have to play four of five days with them it's caused a lot of players not to return.
The people that run the Hope are also a problem. Instead of seeing the problems and trying to change, they seem to live in a bygone era when Bob Hope was a big deal and feel the tournament should be just like it was 20 years ago. Unfortunely Mr. Hope is gone and the PGA Tour is a much different machine than it was 20 years ago. I spent four years between 1999 and 2002 with ABC Sports at the Hope and I have never seen tournament officials as hard to deal with as Hope officials. Instead of trying to grasp the change they feel that the problem is the way television covers and promotes the event.Still we have to give them a big plus for their choice of George Lopez as the tournament host. He worked his butt off and really elevated the event with better celebrities and a new vigor that hasn't been seen. Still Lopez isn't the complete answer, the next task is to get more marquee professional players to show up. The Hope field has been in a downfall since 1996 when the event was put up against the NFL playoffs. On top of that, players aren't interested in having to play 90 holes on four courses with amateurs. For this event to gain some of it's momentum that it had in the 70s and the 80s it's got to be played on four days and over just two courses.
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Now for another big problem, the Classic Club. It was a novel idea, somebody gives a piece of land in the desert to the tournament, they go out and get Arnold Palmer to build them a nice course and just like that we will put our tournament on it and they will come. Unfortunely there was a reason that the got that land for free, it's in an area of Palm Springs that gets high winds going through the pass from Los Angeles. We have all seen in movies like "Rain Man" and "Mission Impossible III" desert scenes with big windmills, that location is just a couple miles down the road from the Classic Club. There is a reason for those windmills being there, high winds and that is the big problem that the Classic Club has, winds. Last year during the final round winds gusted up to 35 MPH as the field played the course in an average of almost three shots over par. Players including Phil Mickelson weren't very impressed and after his round Mickelson asked Larry Bohannan of the Desert Sun, "Are they going to play this course again next year?" When told yes Mickelson wasn't very happy. Matter of fact in talking with Bohannan he had a funny feeling by Mickelson's reaction that Phil wouldn't be back at the Hope and he isn't.
The Classic Club is one big mistake with nothing but problems ahead of it. Yes they have redone the course this year, changing the route of the front nine so that last year's eight hole will be the first and they have changed the slope of some of the greens but the story is that since they didn't put a big roof over the course it's still going to have high winds and reasons for players not to come back.
This year also brings more change as the tournament dropped Bermuda Dunes, the course that has held the tournament every year since it started in the early 60s. It has been replaced by a new Arnold Palmer design course SilverRock Resort in La Quinta and the jury will be out on what kind of a test it is. One thing the players won't have to worry about is wind, just like the Palmer Course at PGA West, SilverRock is protected by the mountains and could be perfectly calm while winds blow 40 MPH's at Classic Club. Oh, talking about winds, on Monday the winds blew and a lot of disgruntled players weren't very happy.
So we can see that the Hope has a lot of problems to overcome, the first being changing back to PGA West a course that all of the players loved and a course that is protected from high winds. Still it's part of PGA Tour folklore, between it's different format of 90 holes and amateurs playing 4 days to the nice weather that usually happens in the Palm Springs area when the rest of the country is freezing it's history and hopefully can not rely on that but also change with the times.
Here are some things to look for this week:
This week the pros will play over four courses in four days, quite a learning scale with very little time to prepare. Making it even harder is the fact that a new course is added, SilverRock. This is the reason that so many players decided not to play the Sony after Mercedes, they thought it best to get into Palm Springs and get ready for this event. Another item that needs to be address is the fact that in the first four days the pros will be playing with amateurs, so patient is needed to tolerate those five plus hour rounds. So look for experience players to do well this week, those with a long track record at the Hope should be your favorites. Since 1984 the champion has averaged winning in his 7th Bob Hope start. Experience is a must in this event, yes Charley Hoffman was a first year player last year and he was the first player to make his Hope debut a victory since Donnie Hammond did it in 1986.
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Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Bob Hope Chrysler:
- The odds of winning the Hope is better than any other full field event because only 128 are in the field. So you won't find non-exempt players or those that are high on the PGA Tour priority list getting into this event.
- The winner will have to make lots of birdies and eagles to win. Phil Mickelson made 37 birdies in 2004 while Justin Leonard made 33 in 2005 and Chad Campbell made 27 in 2006 while Charley Hoffman also made 27. Mickelson's feat of 37 birdies tied with Tom Kite in 1993 for the most anyone has made in a PGA Tour event, that mark is safe with the winds of Classic Club and a new course on the rota but the point is you have to make a lot of birdies.
- Look at someone that destroys the par 5s. The last 10 winners have averaged 15 under on them with Phil Mickelson playing them in 14 under in 2002, Mike Weir playing them in 15 under in 2003 and Phil Mickelson playing them in 12 under in 2004, Justin Leonard playing them in 10 under in 2005, Chad Campbell playing them in 18 under in 2006 and Charley Hoffman playing them in 15 under last year.
- Look for scores to go down this year. That's because the Classic Club will be in it's third year and players will have a better feel for it. That is if the week is calm and no winds, if the winds do kick up, scores will rise
- Again if we get one of those great days without winds the chances for sub-60 rounds on PGA West is a possibity, remember it was the course of David Duval's 59 in 1999.
