A case of the blues
Dark blue may best define the mood at midweek among some tournament officials, who found many of golf's big names didn't show up to play for the $900,000 first-place check. Or they called in sick, including defending champ Davis Love III , before the first round today at Forest Oaks Country Club. Blue in a lighter sense defines the change from the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro in the fall of 2006 to its successor, the Wyndham Championship in the muggy summer of 2007. Warning: Don't come to Forest Oaks and comment that every sign, banner, trash can, caddy bib, gallery marshal's shirt, flags in the practice fairway, media badges and much more resembles Carolina blue. The tournament's new primary color does kind of look like Tyler Hansbrough's UNC basketball jersey. "But this is Wyndham Championship blue,'' assures Janet Wallace, who's in charge of the tournament's merchandise tent. "Carolina blue is a little lighter." Take it from her and others associated with the tournament, the worldwide Wyndham Hotel chain is proud of and particular about the tournament's official color. Every item had to pass color muster. Bruce Lamb , owner of Lambscape landscaping in Oak Ridge, felt pressure to get the blue right on the grassy slope he created and sodded below the elevated scoreboard next to the 18th green. He first planted square sods of green Zoysia grass. He then went shopping for blue spray paint "that is as close to Wyndham blue that I could find." As a final touch, he planted mums spelling Wyndham in the center of the blue grass. Not any kind of grass would do either. Wyndham people didn't want turf that would wilt under the heat frying Forest Oaks this week. Zoysia, Lamb says, "likes warm weather." Rob Goodman , the tournament's media relations director, says he tried hard to find Wyndham blue carpet for the floor of the Irwin Smallwood Media Center tent, but couldn't find any. But he did cover the tables at which reporters work with Wyndham blue cloth, replacing the white at last year's tournament. Tournament director Mark Brazil says "it was a six-figure" expense to change all the signage and to add more. "We probably have twice as much signage as before,'' he says, adding that the increased quantity is matched with increased quality. Wyndham insisted on uniformity of look. Not only did color have to change, but the name Wyndham had to be substituted on countless items, such as the front and back of caddie bibs, the tee markers on each hole and the flags on each green (they remain yellow so golfers can more clearly see them from a distance). Banished are the Chrysler cars that decorated every strategic spot on the course in previous years, including one that appeared parked on water in the lake on the 13th hole. "Who's Chrysler?" asked a smiling Wallace in the clothing tent. "Welcome to the Wyndham Championship." Now, Forest Oaks has more Cadillacs than swanky Irving Park. Cadillac is the official car of the Wyndham Classic. A big Cadillac logo decorates one end of the putting green. Behind the green, several Caddys — the car, not the bag toters — are parked for spectator inspection. Cars also are placed at key spots around the course. Players and some tournament officials drive Cadillac courtesy cars. But not PGA Tour officials. They drive Buicks, the official car of the PGA Tour. If a spectator went looking for a clue that last October this tournament's sponsor was Chrysler, they'd return with nothing to show. "If you do find something,'' Brazil says, wearing a blue Wyndham tie and his event pass hooked to a Wyndham blue lanyard, "I'll get fired."
Party photos make splash |
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