For the last 25 years, Sherwood Country Club has opened its gates to two of golf’s biggest stars in Tiger Woods and Greg Norman.
From 1989 through 1999, the club served as the home of Norman’s “Shark Shootout.”
When Norman and the Shark Shootout exited for Florida following the 1999 event, Tiger Woods and his Foundation took advantage, bringing the World Challenge to the county’s most exclusive golf course.
But now that Woods and his Foundation are riding off into the sunset, relocating to Florida like Norman did so many years ago, the question arises: Who is next to bring an event to Sherwood?
The Sherwood Board of Directors will no doubt explore all options in its quest to bring another high-level tournament to the club.
In my opinion, the club’s best option is to put a full court press on San Diego native Phil Mickelson and try to convince Lefty to be Sherwood’s next great host.
There’s no one in golf who moves the needle with fans like Tiger, but the only player who is even close to being in the same ballpark is Mickelson.
Like Woods, he’s a Southern California native, so if he’s going to ever host his own event, he will probably want to do it close to home.
Why would Mickelson want to host?
Start with the fact that he and wife Amy are extremely motivated to help people less fortunate than they are. While many may not know it, Mickelson has his own Foundation which the couple uses to support a variety of youth and family initiatives.
In order to accomplish that mission, they need money. In the first 13 years of its run at Sherwood, Tiger’s tournament generated $25 million for the Tiger Woods Foundation.
“We’ve had an ability to build a learning center here in Southern California basically because of this event,” Tiger said earlier in the week. “All the sponsors... and the volunteers and all the players who have supported us throughout the years have made this event as special as it is.
“And on top of that, we’ve helped so many kids around the country and have been able to open up a lot of other learning centers around the country because of this event, so it means a lot to us.”
There’s no reason to believe that Phil and Amy wouldn’t have the same kind of financial success with a tournament of their own at Sherwood.
Think how far that kind of money could go in financing the Mickelson’s philanthropic endeavors.
In Sherwood, you have a club that knows how to host a major golf event and the game’s biggest stars. To a man, every player in the field at this year’s Northwestern World Challenge has gone out of his way to express how well Sherwood and its members have treated them over the years.
The members’ willingness to turn their club over to such an event and then embrace it with such strong support would make it easy for Mickelson to get a new tournament up and running.
Mickelson’s golf resume puts him among the game’s greatest players. So why wouldn’t Mickelson want to follow the lead of other notables like Nicklaus, Palmer, Norman and Woods and put his name on a high-level golf event?
Sherwood’s history and infrastructure would make creating a new event a snap.
And Phil could even go home every night, if he wanted. Like he has done the last few years at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera, Mickelson could commute back and forth each day by plane, flying in and out of Camarillo.
As competitive as Phil and Tiger have been over the years, don’t you think Phil would love the idea of swooping in and replacing the golf tournament that Woods is taking away from Southern California golf fans?
So how about it Phil? Are you game to get into the game? Give us all an early Christmas present and say yes.
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