PGA stop to return to once-elite Greenbrier; owner hopes to restore luster after bankruptcy

PGA stop restores shine to once-elite Greenbrier

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — The PGA Tour is returning championship golf to the once-elite Greenbrier for the first time in 15 years, officials said Wednesday, just months after the resort’s new owner promised to bring back a major tournament.

Owner Jim Justice made that pledge in May, and his wish came full-circle with the announcement from PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem that The Greenbrier will hold a tournament for the next six years.

It marks the first large-scale event at The Greenbrier since the U.S. women beat Europe in the 1994 Solheim Cup.

The move was part of Justice’s strategy to restore the shine to a resort and 721-room hotel that once hosted presidents and royalty. The Greenbrier lost its coveted five-star rating in 2000.

“It’s an opportunity really and truly to introduce the world to our Norman Rockwell painting here,” Justice said, noting the resort’s scenic setting in the mountains of West Virginia.

The inaugural Greenbrier Classic will be from July 29 to Aug. 1, 2010, replacing the Buick Open on the Fed-Ex Cup schedule next year. The Greenbrier is the title sponsor and the tournament will have a $6 million purse.

Under Justice, change has come at one speed — fast.

“I think Jim dreams something at night,” Gov. Joe Manchin said. “And then the next day it becomes a reality.”

That could be just about anything. Justice’s family business has numerous coal and agriculture operations. He’s bought and redesigned a golf course elsewhere in the state. He moonlights as a high school basketball coach and as a Little League president.

Since buying The Greenbrier out of bankruptcy for $20.1 million, Justice immediately brought back hundreds of employees who had been furloughed last winter as the resort struggled to fill its rooms, promising them a 10 percent bonus if the fifth star is restored.

He announced a casino will be built at the site of a once-secret underground bunker built during the Cold War to house members of Congress.

Last month, he tapped good friend and NBA great Jerry West, who will lend his name and memorabilia for a steakhouse near the casino.

Now, golf, although dates at The Greenbrier after 2010 haven’t been determined, Finchem said.

“This resort has gone through four-five years of tough times,” Justice said. “We needed a major, major shot in the arm.”

Tom Watson was a member of the 1979 Ryder Cup team, although the birth of his first child took him away three days before the competition was to begin.

He returned to The Greenbrier in 2005 as pro emeritus. This year’s British Open runner-up said the PGA wouldn’t be coming to The Greenbrier without Justice.

“He took his vision and he said I’m going to make this a five-star hotel again. I’m going to get that extra star back,” Watson said. “And the only way he could do that frankly is to show his love for West Virginia to the people who work here who have been down in the dumps for many years.”

Justice approached his high school teammate, Slugger White, who is a PGA Tour official, about the idea of bringing professional golf back to The Greenbrier.

Tour officials visited the resort several times, tinkering with the idea of using either The Greenbrier course, site of the 1979 Ryder Cup and the Solheim event, and the 6,800-yard Old White course, which underwent major renovations earlier this decade.

“They went out on the Old White and they came running back and said, ‘man, this is it,’” Justice said.

The Greenbrier’s golf history includes Sam Snead, who lived not far from the resort in Hot Springs, Va., and had a 47-year relationship with the resort, the last nine as golf pro emeritus until his death in May 2002. Snead had five holes-in-one on Old White’s par-3 18th hole.