The Frys.com golf tournament, now entering its fourth year at CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, is an economic turbine every time it rolls into town.
Hotels are booked solid. Restaurants are packed with golf-crazed patrons from near and far. Just about any local entrepreneur with some kind of stake in the surrounding communities has something to gain.
Sales coordinator Tiffany Kintanar of the Courtyard by Marriott in Morgan Hill, which was completely sold out of rooms for the 2012 tournament and has since been contracted by the Frys.com organizers to block 30 plus rooms for the upcoming October 2013 event, labeled the extravaganza as one as “one of the biggest events on the calendar” for the Madrone Parkway hotel. The PGA Tour event has grown from a minor, end-of-the-season tournament to one that lured golf’s top attraction, Tiger Woods, two years ago.
“It’s a pleasure to be one of the hotels they’ve picked (for their golfer accommodations),” said Kintanar, who is expecting similar results for this year’s tournament week scheduled for Oct. 7-13. “Morgan Hill’s a small town, but everyone’s here (for the Frys.com)…we’re expecting to be sold out.”
But whether South County continues to benefit from that kind of annual business bump is as uncertain as a birdie on a 220-yard par 3 hole.
Frys.com’s one-year contract extension with CordeValle ends after the last ball drops into the cup this October.
When the tournament first relocated in 2010 to San Martin via Scottsdale, Ariz., the plan was to hold the Fall Series event at CordeValle for three years before switching venues to a private Morgan Hill golf course – known as The Institute – owned by John Fry, the Fry’s Electronics retail chain store owner.
That plan, which was extended one additional year through this year’s tournament, has been stalled due to the delay in construction of a course clubhouse, a necessity for hosting a PGA Tour event.
“A magnificent structure is planned, but as of right now it is unfinished,” said tournament director Jeff Sanchez, who has not ruled out a return to the private 7,360-yard championship course at CordeValle in 2014, nor the ultimate goal of a permanent home for Frys.com at The Institute in the near future. “It’s definitely part of our plans. Our longterm plan is to move to The Institute.”
But The Institute is still waiting for approval from PG&E to construct its clubhouse, a 170,000-square-foot replica of the 14th-century Alhambra castle in Spain that will also serve as a headquarters for the American Institute of Mathematics, a local nonprofit think tank and education foundation.
“We love being at CordeValle. It’s a beautiful resort and we love being in Silicon Valley,” said Sanchez. “We’re evaluating our options for 2014, and as of today we’re undetermined.”
In the interim, local business owners are hoping a major economic engine – one that has drummed up roughly $10-$15 million in annual revenue; increased foot traffic around town; and hotel, gas and sales taxes for the entire region since it teed off in San Martin four years ago – won’t be putted away to another town.
Director of Sales Jeannie Cabral for Hampton Inn on Condit Road can see Fry’s 192-acre private compound off Foothill Avenue at a distance from a second-story room in the east corner of the hotel, formerly the Radisson.
“This year, we expect to pretty much sell out,” said Cabral, who also has an agreement with Frys.com to block off 25 rooms during tournament week. “We’re hoping to get some golfers here. We’re going to get as many we can.”
Interim President John Horner of the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce underscores an event of “that stature” as a major “positive” for the city.
“When you bring tens of thousands of people to a community, that’s always a good thing,” he noted.
Horner said that influx of visitors to South County has a two-fold effect. The short-term benefits go to the hotels, restaurants, gas stations and retailers, but the longterm awareness of “the charm of our community” may attract future businesses to open a new office in the area or attract a wealthy retiree to build their dream house.
With Woods in the field in 2011, the Frys.com attracted a record 75,000 spectators. In 2010, an estimated 35,000 golf fans showed up and last year attracted 30,000, according to Sanchez. At the Wells Fargo Championship held in Charlotte, North Carolina, one that can accommodate up to 35,000 people a day, PGA Tour officials estimate the event’s economic impact on the area at $40 million to $45 million, according a report on charlotte.com. One of golf’s majors such as the 2012 PGA Championship, held in South Carolina, was estimated to generate $193 million.
Owner Rosy Bergin of Rosy’s At The Beach downtown, where business steadily picks up the week prior to the event and during tournament play, would like to see that kind of business stay.
“It would be to our advantage to make this thing continue. Just to be a stop on the PGA tour is great. We want to preserve that,” she said.
Not only that, the Frys.com tournament is the gift that keeps on giving long after the golf pros and fawning fans have left town.
“That continues on throughout the year,” Bergin explained. “Someone may have visited for the PGA event and had such a good experience that they want to visit Morgan Hill again.”
The same pertains to the downtown sports bar and restaurant, Huntington Station, where owner Debra Creighton said, “October is just a great month,” especially with Frys.com coinciding with the defending World Series Champion San Francisco Giants competing in Major League Baseball’s post season.
“We get more caddies than we do the golfers. They like to let loose a little bit more, but we still get some golfers,” Creighton said.
Michael Marion, Director of Golf Operations and Membership at CordeValle, said the club members and staff are all looking forward to hosting the 2013 tournament, which in the past has enticed the likes of Woods, Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera, Justin Leonard and 2010 champion Rocco Mediate.
Marion hoped the additions of FedEx Cup points – where golfers accumulate points based on how they finish in events throughout the season, vying for prize money with the winner getting a $10 million check – and a guaranteed spot in The Masters would make for an even stronger field in this year’s tournament.
“We’re excited to see what kind of field comes out of it,” Marion said. “It’s been wonderful for the economy, especially the year Tiger Woods played in it. It was exciting for everyone to watch him play here.”
President Susan Valenta of the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce hopes Frys.com organizers can work something out with CordeValle to extend its stay there because “there’s a huge trickle down effect” of having a signature event in the area, one that builds and strengthens over the years.
“Overall, the Frys.com is a very, very positive influence on our economy,” Valenta said. “Hopefully, the part that keeps them here, meaning CordeValle or the Fry’s property development, can still make that happen.”
The tournament has contributed $1 million to charities in 2011 and again in 2012. Since 2006, the Frys.com-sponsored event, which was previously held in Las Vegas, where it was called the Fry’s Electronics Open, and then Scottsdale, Ariz., has contributed more than $5 million to various charities.
Proceeds from the tournament have gone toward area nonprofits including the American Institute of Mathematics, Adoption Services of Santa Clara County, a local chapter of First Tee Foundation that gives youths more access to golf, and the El Toro Youth Center in Morgan Hill.
“It’s a win-win all around,” Valenta said.
In the 2012 tournament, more than 130 professional golfers competed for more than $5 million in prizes, about 100 members of the media attended and about 1,200 tournament volunteers helped conduct the event, organizers said.
Mediate won the first Frys.com held at CordeValle, taking home a $900,000 purse in 2010. While the winner’s share remained the same, the winning golfer has changed with Bryce Molder victorious in 2011 and Sweden’s Jonas Blixt in 2012.
