Desert Mountain caps Champions Tour season with Charles Schwab Cup

Dick Hyland didn’t fall in love with Desert Mountain the first time he saw it.

“I was recruited out of Florida to be the director of golf,” Hyland said. “I took my first visit up there on Pima Road and I had no idea where I was. I saw snow on the mountaintops. I’m thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, what is that stuff.’

“There wasn’t a home built on the property and there wasn’t a paved road up there. We were going on the belief (developer) Lyle Anderson gave us that this was going to be a special, special place in the world of golf.”

This week Desert Mountain will host the Champions Tour’s season-ending Charles Schwab Cup for the third time in four years. The tournament continues a relationship that began with The Tradition, was interrupted for a few years and again is going strong.

For that, two men are to thank: Anderson and some guy named Jack Nicklaus.

Anderson had the dream: Build a world-class golf facility and a community would spring up around it. He only had one man in mind to make his dream come true. Anderson and Nicklaus had known each other since 1980, when Anderson contacted Nicklaus about designing Desert Highlands Golf Club in Scottsdale. Nicklaus accepted the job and four years later, during the PGA Tour’s Skins Game at Desert Highland, Anderson had Nicklaus look at Desert Mountain.

“I thought it was a beautiful piece of property,” Nicklaus said via e-mail. “Desert Highlands was our first design work in the Scottsdale market and we are proud that it set a high bar. But when I saw the property for Desert Mountain I thought it actually had more movement and elevation than Desert Highlands. I thought it was a very pretty, very unique site.”

Nicklaus didn’t design Desert Mountain with a Senior Tour tournament in mind. That was Anderson’s objective.

“From the standpoint of real estate, nationally televised golf tournaments are as good as you can do in terms of exposure,” Anderson said. “I got hooked on that in the Skins Game at Desert Highland. When we did Desert Mountain from the very beginning we said we were going to have a tournament here.”

In 1988 Anderson spoke with then-PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman, who told Anderson that having a second PGA Tour event – along with the Phoenix Open – didn’t make sense. Beman urged Anderson to put in a bid for a Senior Tour event.

Thus The Tradition was born, held for the first time in 1989. But about that name. Who names themselves The Tradition when they, um, have no tradition?

“We knew that someday the (Senior Tour) would have to name their major championships,” Anderson said. “We decided to make it a really first class, phenomenal event. I thought it was the best name.”

The Tradition patterned itself after The Masters. It had a Champions Dinner for golf’s majors winners on Wednesday. There was no pro-am. The telecast had limited commercials.

“We didn’t lobby to be a major championship,” Hyland said. “It was the players and the media who said, ‘Wow.’ ”

It didn’t hurt, either, that Nicklaus, who turned 50 in January of 1990, made his Senior Tour debut at The Tradition that year and promptly won the event. His victory solidified the tournament’s reputation and gave it wide exposure.

The odd thing: Even on the Cochise Course he designed, Nicklaus didn’t like his chances of winning.

“I was out there playing in a practice round, and to be honest, I was playing terribly,” said Nicklaus, who would go on to win the event in 1991, 1995 and 1996. “My long-time instructor, Jack Grout, who taught me the game at age 10, had passed away the year before, so I was looking for some help, looking for some eyes. I was out playing and I saw Jim Flick. I had known Jim for decades and he used to come watch me for years at Frenchman’s Creek (in Florida), standing behind us and watching Jack Grout work with me. So he was there and we walked around a bit, and finally we got to the 18th hole. I said Jim, ‘What do you see? You’ve seen me a lot over the years.’ Jim said, ‘Well, I don’t see Jack Nicklaus at all.’ So we then went to the practice range and in 10 minutes I was Jack Nicklaus again.”

The Tradition was held at Desert Mountain from 1989 to 2001 before moving to Superstition Golf & Country Club in Gold Canyon in 2002 and, eventually, to Oregon and Alabama. It wasn’t until 2011 that Desert Mountain again became a part of the Champions Tour, hosting the Charles Schwab Cup.

And, once again, it was Nicklaus who was in the middle of all it.

Bob Jones, the chief operating officer at Desert Mountain, and several Desert Mountain members told Nicklaus they wanted to bring a Champions Tour event back to their facility. Nicklaus made a few phone calls, had a few conversations and, well, here we are, Desert Mountain hosting the Tour’s season-ending event.

Hyland never would have imagined it.

“That first year (1989) we were working out of trailers and mobile minis,” Hyland said. “They were nice trailers but still.”

Hey, a Tradition has to start somewhere.

Charles Schwab Cup Championship

Where: Desert Mountain Club, 37700 N. Desert Mountain Parkway, Scottsdale.

Parking: $10 at Sky Ranch Airport, 8302 E. Cave Creek Rd., Carefree. Includes free shuttle ride to the course.

Tickets: Wednesday, $20 online, $25 at the gate; Thursday, $22 online, $30 at the gate; Friday, $27 online, $35 at the gate; Saturday, $30 online, $35 at the gate; Sunday, $30 online, 35 at the gate; Weekly ticket, $75 online, $100 at the gate. Tickets are free for active duty, reserve, military retirees, their dependents and non-retired veterans with a valid military ID.
TV: Golf Channel, Thursday-Sunday, 2:30-4:30 p.m.

Information: Go to schwabcup.com or call 480-237-2100, ext. 15.

Thursday tee times

10:10 a.m. - Jerry Smith, Stephen Ames

10:20 a.m. - Jeff Sluman, Russ Cochran

10:30 a.m. - Bart Bryant, Wes Short Jr.

10:40 a.m. - Gene Sauers, Ian Woosnam

10:50 a.m. - Olin Brown, Kirk Triplett

11 a.m. - Tom Pernice Jr., David Frost

11:10 a.m. - Mark O'Meara, Duffy Waldorf

11:20 a.m. - Michael Allen, Fred Couples

11:30 a.m. - Kenny Perry, Paul Goydos

11:40 a.m. - Lee Janzen, Tom Lehman

11:50 a.m. - Woody Austin, Scott Dunlap

Noon - Esteban Toledo, Billy Andrade

12:10 p.m. - Joe Durant, Kevin Sutherland

12:20 p.m. - Bernhard Langer, Marco Dawson

12:30 p.m. Colin Montgomerie, Jeff Maggert