A veteran of past golf championships — including the 1999 Men’s U.S. Open held at Pine-hurst and the 1996 U.S. Wo-men’s Open (also held at Pine Needles) — Jones believes this year’s edition of the Open will be the biggest and best ever.
Jones is expecting great things despite the added challenges of marketing the women’s championship as opposed to marketing the men’s game.
“It’s shaping up to be much larger than the U.S. Open Women’s Championship in 1996,” Jones said. “It’s a little bit different operation than the men’s Open was. With the men’s, it’s almost strictly an operation where all your corporate ticket sales are much more of a given than they are for the women.
“For the women, you have to have a marketing plan where you’ve been trying to sell tickets for about a year, same with corporate hospitality. And then you have to be able to operate the championship as well. So you have three different components you have to focus on.”
Despite the extra elbow grease required to market and sell the women’s game, Jones remains optimistic that this year’s Open will break all attendance records.
Jones anticipates over 100,000 spectators for the four-day event.
“We think we’ll be able to break the record, which is 118,000 for the week,” Jones said. “Our sales have been very good. We expect to be past what we did for the 1996 event before this one even starts. 1996 was the third largest ever, so, already we’re very successful based on our sales. Good weather will probably make the difference on whether we break the record or not.”
And in order to bring the action to the masses that can’t be present for the Open, Jones has overseen the installation of 250 phone lines for the estimated 1,000 media — not including NBC — that will be present.
This brings to the fore yet another logistics obstacle, as much if this media presence will be foreign — a reflection of the top women players.
“If you look at most of the stars, they’re foreign,” Jones said. “So I anticipate Japanese television and European television to be a major player in this. I’m thankful we have our past experience with foreign media to draw upon for this event.”
One added bonus for Pine Needles is that much of this infrastructure will remain after the golfers and television cameras are gone.
Such infrastructure may help lure the Open back to Pine Needles down the road, Jones said.
“As we did in 1999 at the men’s U.S. Open held in Pinehurst, where it makes sense we try and put in permanent power, cablevision, telephones, etcetera,” Jones said. “We certainly hope the women’s Open will come back to Pine Needles. As popular as this place is for various golf events, leaving much of this infrastructure in place is the smart thing to do.”
When all is said and done, Jones realizes that most of the spectators won’t even notice the hard work he and his staff have endured to make this the best Open ever.
For Jones, a well-run, successful tournament is its own reward.
“Each tournament has its own theme — its own style,” Jones said. “Just trying to prepare the championship to really reflect and represent Pine Needles is something I don’t think people will understand or see until they get here.
“When the tournament is over and the spectators are leaving, I want them to think they saw a great championship with, hopefully, great weather. I want them to enjoy the experience and want them to think they had just been at and seen a first-class championship.
“There’s a difference between a tournament and a championship, and that’s what we’re striving to show.”
