D'Amato: Golf and Shaq mix just fine at PGA Tour Champions event in Madison
MADISON – It’s tradition for golfers on the PGA Tour Champions to be introduced as they walk onto the 18th green at the end of their rounds, usually to a smattering of polite applause.
Basketball great Shaquille O’Neal took the mic for one group in the first round of the American Family Insurance Championship on Friday and let’s just say the decibel level went up a few notches. Shaq didn’t blow the speakers, but he did cause Vijay Singh to back off a tee shot three holes away.
“We heard him,” said tournament host Steve Stricker, who was playing with Singh. “Vijay actually had to kind of step back and wait for them to be done with whatever he was doing. But we could hear him. What was he doing?”
He was Shaq being Shaq.
And it was just one sign that you weren’t at your father’s buttoned-down tour event. There is serious golf being played by serious golfers at University Ridge, but the AmFam Championship has taken advantage of a less restrictive approach by the PGA Tour Champions to put on a show that casts a wide net, appealing to people who aren’t necessarily here to see Brad Bryant hit a 4-iron off a hanging lie.
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The gallery skews old – the players are 50 and older, most of them unfamiliar to kids who follow Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler – but children are admitted free when accompanied by a paying adult and there’s something for everyone. As a result, the AmFam draws some of the biggest galleries on the Champions tour and in its first two years contributed a total of $2.7 million to charity.
The field is among the strongest for a non-senior major, too, in large part because of the players’ respect for Stricker but also because they appreciate playing in front of enthusiastic crowds.
John Riegger, who opened with an even-par 72, tweeted, “Proud to say this is my 3rd yr in a row at the @amfamchamp!!! I really love Madison Wisconsin. The best crowds on @ChampionsTour.”
O’Neal was on the premises Friday because he’s a brand ambassador for The General Insurance, a subsidiary of American Family Insurance. He visited with the University of Wisconsin basketball team, toured American Family Children’s Hospital and later Friday was scheduled to spin records as part of a concert featuring REO Speedwagon at Breese Stevens Field.
“We’ll have fun,” Shaq said of his show. “Get the people dancing. Hit ‘em with some white guy classics.”
Asked what would constitute a “white guy classic,” O’Neal crooned some ’75 Peter Frampton – “Ooh, baby, I love your way, every day” – in a smooth baritone. He was almost on key, too.
Darius Rucker drew 7,500 to the inaugural AmFam concert last year. Jim Buchheim, communications vice president for American Family Insurance, said 7,800 tickets had been sold for Shaq, Sara Evans and A Thousand Horses and REO.
“I’ll be going,” said Stricker, who shot an 8-under-par 64 to take the lead in the 54-hole event. “Kind of been looking forward to tonight and seeing the whole thing. I’m sure REO Speedwagon is going to kind of make the brain think of high school all over again, so it should be interesting.”
On Saturday, a celebrity foursome consisting of Lee Trevino, Andy North, Brett Favre and Derek Jeter will play a nine-hole hit-and-giggle event, teeing off on the 10th hole after the tournament leaders go through. Stricker played in the celebrity group in 2016, the tournament’s inaugural year, because he had not yet turned 50 and AmFam wanted to find a way to get him on the course and in front of galleries.
“It was such a big hit, we realized we’ve got to keep that going,” Buchheim said. “That is a big attraction. Saturday is our biggest day from a crowd standpoint.”
Tournament organizers are thinking outside the box and have hit upon a successful formula. The AmFam must run some of its more unorthodox marketing ideas past the PGA Tour Champions and its players advisory group but has gotten the green light on virtually everything it has proposed.
“We want to take advantage of the flexibility that we have on the Champions tour to maybe do a few things that they don’t do on the regular tour,” Buchheim said. “I would say the tour is as excited about Shaq’s appearance as we are.”
After just two years, the AmFam has established itself as one of Madison’s most popular summer events. But what will happen when Stricker and Madison neighbor Jerry Kelly are no longer competitive? Both are only 51 and are several years away from dealing with eroding skills, but it will happen eventually.
“I think one of the things that’s going to be important for the PGA Tour Champions is that Phil Mickelson turns 50 in two years, Jim Furyk turns 50, Ernie Els turns 50 … can they get them out to play with regularity on this tour – or, at least, can we get them to this event?” Buchheim said.
“To me, that’s the benefit of Steve. I think Fred Couples is here because of Steve. Can he get a Mickelson here, can he get an Els here, can he get a Furyk here? I think he’s got that kind of staying power for at least the next eight or nine years, to be able to help attract the former stars on the PGA Tour who are now turning 50.
“I think this event has got staying power for a long time.”