Will up to 30,000 golf fans piling into town this week make a hole in one for the New Rochelle economy?
Or will the scorecard reveal an economic bogey if those fans watch great golf at Wykagyl Country Club on North Avenue only to head home without stopping for a fill-up or a steak?
Tournament director Jason Soucy ”“ the center of a vortex of activity three weeks before the first tee time ”“ said the impact has already begun: “This event is of a size and scale it allows us to do business with a lot of local vendors.”
The evidence: Office trailers buzzed. The tents were up. Pepsi was in the refrigerator. Medical services had been contracted. The artificial turf sidewalk needed more turf, but its wood base was complete.
The big show begins 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 18, when the shuttle buses begin rolling and fans can gander at what a just-completed $6.5 million Coore and Crenshaw Inc. golf course makeover ”“ “the hot ticket right now” ”“ looks like.
Wednesday is the pro-am, the only day cameras are permitted.
The four-day HSBC Women”™s World Match Play Championship ”“ with a $2 million purse ”“ begins with the buses rolling again at 6:30 a.m. Thursday.
The event includes 64 of the best golfers in the world. Come Sunday afternoon, only one woman will be standing and she”™ll be $500,000 richer. The event is televised: The Golf Channel Thursday and Friday; CBS Saturday and Sunday.
Wykagyl has hosted professional women”™s golf events for 23 years, 18 consecutively, according to the club”™s general manager and chief operating officer, Tim Muessle.
This year, HSBC takes the reins from former sponsors Sybase Inc. and Japan Airlines.
For the first time, the New Rochelle Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) is on board, providing 9,000 restaurant guides for distribution at the event. Eateries are broken down into 13 categories, including Mexican, Peruvian, delis and five dining options at New Rochelle”™s New Roc City.
BID claims success in assisting $100 million worth of tax-paying development establish itself in the city. It partnered with HSBC May 24 via a two-and-a-half-story outdoor showing of “Curious George” at Library Green.
BID Executive Director Ralph Di Bart called the golf event “wonderful, professional and prestigious” and said, “Thousands of people will see what New Rochelle has to offer.”
A walk-through of nearby Quaker Ridge Shopping Center revealed a guarded optimism among the three stores that went on the record: Shear Pleasure, where 22-year owner Barbara Nunziato was upbeat, or guardedly upbeat, about more people at the center because of the tournament; H&R Bialy Inc., where a staffer said past years saw some early- and some late-day increases in business during tourneys; and Wykagyl Service Station on Quaker Ridge Road.
Ron Harris, owner of Wykagyl Service Station, is a golfer who in the past found no effort to reach out to the business community when the pros came to town. “This year is different,” he said, pointing to a tourney poster prominent in his window.
Harris offered full-throated praise for the event. “You don”™t have to be a golfer to enjoy it. Say you”™re a big strong guy. To see these women who are smaller than you, and not as strong as you, hit the ball farther and straighter than you can ”“ it”™s just amazing.”
Soucy praised the New Rochelle Parks and Recreation Department. “We”™re working closely with New Rochelle on the parking,” he said. “Bill Zimmerman (parks and recreation director) and his staff are proving a tremendous asset.”
Shuttle buses will ferry fans from three parking venues: the Ursuline School and Iona College, along with Wykagyl on North Avenue, and the New Rochelle train depot downtown, also a major public bus hub.
The remaining opening times are 7:30 a.m. Friday; 6 a.m. Saturday; and 7 a.m. Sunday.
Previous Wykagyl LPGA events were held in May when the club was still ginning up for the season.
This year”™s July dates mean the full complement of 150 workers is in place, to be augmented only by an additional 12 to 15 staffers to help with concessions. Executive chef Robert Bach”™s background includes large-scale casino operations. “The staff runs extremely smoothly,” Muessle said. “I just try to stay out of their way.”
The course has just undergone a $6.5 million renovation by golf architects Coore and Crenshaw Inc., described by Muessle as “the hot ticket right now.”
Said Kevin Martin, HSBC”™s chief of customer marketing: “HSBC is reaching out to the community in a variety of ways ”“ through radio, TV and newspapers ads as well as nontraditional advertising in Grand Central and the New Rochelle train station as well as actual ads on the Metro-North New Haven line.” Other ads are prominent subway shuttle between Grand Central and Times Square, a billboard on I-95, posters in HSBC”™s Fifth Avenue headquarters in Manhattan and a billboard on North Avenue outside Wykagyl.
HSBC branches in New Rochelle, Eastchester, Rye, Bronxville and Pelham
will be decorated for the event and offer T-shirt and golf-ball giveaways for customers. Another 30 branches stretching into the Bronx will display posters, lobby cards and handouts. Martin placed the anticipated attendance at 20,000 to 30,000 for the final four days of play.
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