On Monday March 30, officials and players from the PGA tour along with officials from Dell will meet with the Board of Directors and the resident golfing members of Austin Country Club (ACC) to discuss hosting the World Golf Championship Match Play tournament at ACC 2016-2020.
The purpose of the meeting is to fully inform the resident golfing members of Austin Country Club concerning the impact of hosting the tournament in Austin and at ACC. Following that meeting, the resident golfing members of Austin Country club will have 30 days to vote on whether to hold the championship at ACC.
Data points are likely to include the financial impact of bringing the tournament to Austin and ACC, the logistics of hosting the tournament, the prestige of hosting the tournament and the benefits and potential negatives to the resident golfing members of ACC.
With Dell as the title sponsor, the tournament would bring the best 64 players in the world to Austin Country Club and provide the club with significant exposure to the golfing world. Austin and local charities would benefit from the tournament. The logistics of hosting a tournament and the impact to the course and ACC resident golfing members will be among the discussion points.
Austin Country Club is currently undergoing a complete restoration project that includes redoing the tees, fairways and greens. The course is scheduled to re-open October 1, 2015. The Match Play Championship is scheduled for March 2016 so there is some hesitancy on the part of some members to host the tournament due to the fact that members have been paying dues for nine months with no golf course to play and would lose access to the course for three weeks to a month shortly after it re-opens. The PGA would require overseeding the course which ACC has not done in recent years. Since there is a long waiting list for resident golfing memberships at ACC, the benefits of increased exposure for ACC are somewhat negated.
It remains to be seen how the membership will view the benefits versus the negatives of the proposal but smart money says the membership will approve holding the tournament at ACC.
