Magic Happened: Chapter 9

Year of the Tiger

Three days before Christmas 1993, the new brass at Hardee’s delivered the not-so-merry news that the 1994 tournament would be the last played under the Hardee’s Golf Classic banner.

For the first time in nine years, the QC tourney’s future was back in doubt.

The decision was not surprising. In the fall of 1992, Hardee’s leadership had rebuffed efforts by Piazzi and the tournament board to renegotiate another multi-year title sponsorship agreement. They agreed only to a one-year extension for 1994, with the intent of re-evaluating the partnership on an annual basis.

Less than a month prior to the Christmas week announcement, tourney leaders made a renewed pitch for multiple years with what the TOUR and the tournament believed was a necessary increase of the $1 million purse. Hardee’s again declined. Soon after came the decision to part amicably following the ’94 event.

Although the timing of the announcement may have seemed a bit Grinch-like, the early decision actually provided the tourney board a longer window to seek a new title sponsor for 1995 and beyond. Yet by June of 1994, with more than 30 potential corporate sponsors having heard and dismissed the tournament’s pitch, that window appeared to be closing.

That’s when the PGA TOUR commissioner rode into town offering yet another lifeline. This time, though, it wasn’t old friend Deane Beman. He had officially retired a month earlier. Instead, Beman’s long-anointed successor, Tim Finchem, joined a press conference at the QC airport to announce a four-year agreement through which the TOUR would subsidize a $1 million QC event.

In exchange, the tourney would take a date opposite the Ryder Cup in 1995 and 1997. More importantly to Finchem, it also would play opposite the new, PGA TOUR-run United States-vs.-the- world event called the Presidents Cup in 1996 and 1998.

There would be no network TV. The possibility was floated of broadcast coverage on a new Arnold Palmer-backed venture known as The Golf Channel. That, though, was dependent on the wide-eyed notion that a pay cable network devoted strictly to golf could possibly attract enough subscribers to make it to launch.

As if.

The agreement did contain an escape clause: If the tournament found a sponsor willing to pay full freight for a network-televised QC event, a new, unencumbered date would be provided.

Big if.

Finchem’s offer was the proverbial bird in the hand, a tradeoff, but a fair one. The certainty of having a tournament also came with the certainty of annually playing opposite an event in which 24 of the top players in the game would be playing for love of country. That, of course, also meant the golf world’s attention would be focused far from Oakwood.

Or so it seemed.

Yet as morning dawned on Sunday, September 15, 1996, several members of the national golf media abandoned the second-ever Presidents Cup to fly from Washington D.C. to Moline with plans on chronicling a Quad City Classic victory by a 20-year-old wunderkind making just his third professional start.

The golf world, meanwhile, tuned into The Golf Channel — now in its second year and growing — to see what the fuss was about.

And quite a fuss it was.

Eldrick “Tiger” Woods was an established presence in the junior game years before accepting a golf scholarship to Stanford, and he stepped onto the PGA TOUR with arguably more hype than any athlete in professional sports history.

In April of 1996, when Woods teed it up in Augusta as the reigning two-time United States Amateur champion, Jack Nicklaus — the man whose achievements Woods had posted for inspiration on his bedroom wall as a child — suggested Woods ultimately would win more Masters than the 10 Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer owned between them.

Some endorsement, that.

In August, Woods won an unprecedented third straight U.S. Amateur title, that after winning an unprecedented three straight U.S. Junior Ams. He then promptly turned pro. Instantaneously, he collected a pair of endorsements more tangibly bankable than the sanction of the Golden Bear: a $40 million sponsorship agreement with Nike and a $20 million deal with Titleist.

Ahead of his August 29 pro debut in Milwaukee, Nike introduced the son of an African-American ex-Green Beret father and a native Thai mother through a dramatic 60-second, narration-free commercial. It started with the words “Hello World” superimposed over grainy images of a diaper-clad prodigy swinging a golf club, and continued with images and words depicting the young player’s major milestones and considerable accomplishments. The commercial’s dramatic finish featured these words: “There are still courses in the United States I am not allowed to play because of the color of my skin.”

In that context, Tiger Woods was more than just the second coming of Jack Nicklaus. He was the second coming of Jackie Robinson as well.

Fair to say he had us at “Hello.”

That certainly was evident upon arrival at the Quad City Classic, the third of seven scheduled fall starts through which Woods and his team of advisors — his father, Earl Woods, chief among them — hoped the young player might win enough money to gain instant PGA TOUR status.

After tying for 60^th in his pro debut at the Greater Milwaukee Open and improving to 11^th at the Canadian Open in the weeks preceding the QCC, Woods actually scored his first pro win at Oakwood, besting eight of the top players in the Quad Cities field in the nine-hole Merrill Lynch Shoot-Out on Tuesday afternoon.

An exhibition series that served as a soft launch for tournament week at many PGA TOUR stops, previous QC shootout editions had been sparsely attended. Woods drew several thousand fans to watch the two hours of semi-serious golf in the afternoon, and ticket sales for the tournament proper already were trending like they never had before.

As veteran TOUR player John Adams observed: “John Daly can walk right by people out here. He is going to get knocked down by people trying to get to Tiger.”

Around noon that Tuesday, Woods had filled the Oakwood clubhouse banquet room with local and national media for his only pre-tournament news conference. There, he fielded questions about his “Hello, World” commercial and his potential game-changing impact on the TOUR. He handled all inquiries like a seasoned veteran — which, in a sense, he was.

“I have been in the media eye since I was 2 years old,” explained the young man who took his first public swings on the nationally syndicated Mike Douglas Show while barely old enough to walk. “I have grown up with it. It has grown up with me.”

Woods was playing in the Quad Cities on the sponsor’s exemption his father had requested and accepted on his son’s behalf in May, long before it was certain the younger Woods would turn professional. Even then, the announcement was front-page news. Then came the third straight U.S. Am win. And then came “Hello World.”

The phenom arrived at Oakwood already one of the most compelling national sports stories in years. The energy surrounding his appearance absolutely changed the vibe of the Quad City Classic, which only 12 months earlier had seemed all but destined to end its run at 25 hard-fought years.

On September 24, 1995, D.A. Weibring had scored his third QC win with the last turn of a mud-caked ball, an exciting, walk-off ending to a week that had felt anything but magical.

Unseasonably cold and snowy Thursday weather had reduced the tourney to three rounds for the only time in the history of the event, and to call the Sunday turnout light might be generous.

“There was no one on the course,” said Steve Jacobs, who chaired the ’95 event, the first played under the QCC banner. “We had pictures of people in the snow on Thursday. There were more people the next year at a practice day than there were for the whole tournament during my year.”

A somber Thursday mood had carried through to the weekend in ’95. And as the sun set on Oakwood following Weibring’s win, it truly felt like the lights were being turned out on professional golf in the Quad Cities almost a quarter century to the day after Beman had won the debut show at Crow.

It was more than just a feeling.

Despite the promise of three more years of TOUR support coupled with a $1 million deal with Deere & Company to serve as a presenting sponsor through 1998, there was little confidence by those in the know that the event, as currently constituted, could survive through the duration of those deals.

In fact, taking the tee in ’96 was less than a sure thing.

“I still remember Tony Piazzi calling Sally and me into the office and suggesting that we update our resumes,” Vickie McWhorter remembered of the last days of 1995. “He was saying there might not be another tournament if we can’t get a title sponsor.”

McWhorter and Welvaert both declined the advice. “I pretty much told him that until I know it’s over, there is no way I am leaving,” Welvaert said. “As solemn as he was and despite how much we knew it could be true, we were not going to give any thought to not being part of the tournament. This tournament had my heart.”

Just starting a young family, Piazzi couldn’t afford a similar stance, and in December, he accepted the dual positions of executive director of the San Antonio (Texas) Golf Association and tournament director of the LaCantera Texas Open.

“I think I said no three times before I came down here,” said Piazzi, still a transplanted Texan more than 20 years later. “And even after I said yes, I really felt like I was leaving the tournament in the lurch. That still bothers me to some extent. But the bottom line is, I left, and great things happened. So, it all worked out.”

It did, but improbably so.

Kym Hougham’s heart remained in golf long after he joined the family insurance agency when his father suffered a stroke just as the son was graduating from the University of Illinois. He was a member of the QCC tournament board when he applied for the vacated tourney director position in the winter of 1996, and he won the assignment with either the single best answer in job interview history or the craziest.

“The first question that was asked of Kym was, ‘Why in the world would you want this job on a ship that looks to be sinking?’” remembered Todd Nicholson, a Moline banker and the 1996 volunteer chair. “And his response was, “Why wouldn’t I?’”

Three weeks after Hougham’s hiring was announced he, Nicholson and Dave Engstrom attended meetings for tournament directors and leaders just ahead of The Players Championship in Florida. They found themselves on a golf course in the company of Duke Butler, then the TOUR’s senior vice president for tournament business affairs.

“It was during that round that Duke ever so diplomatically said, ‘We have our finger on the pulse of the Quad City Classic and it’s not very strong,’’’ Nicholson recalled. “Which was the TOUR’s way of saying this was it. This was our last year.”

Remembered Hougham: “I’m like, ‘Oh, man. The hits just keep coming.’”

Just a few weeks later, however, Hougham’s pulse quickened — and the tournament’s did as well — when word came through an intermediary that Earl Woods had asked about the possibility of a QCO exemption.

“I said, ‘Have Earl call and we’ll talk about it,” Hougham said. “Two hours later, the phone rings and it’s Earl. He said, ‘Kym, Tiger would really like to play in your tournament if you’ll give him an exemption.’ And this was probably my first executive decision where I didn’t ask anybody. I said, ‘Absolutely. If Tiger wants to play, we’ll give him an exemption.’”

And that is how the 1996 Quad City Classic became the first tournament Woods led as a professional, as well as the first tournament he led entering the final round on Sunday.

Most memorably, of course, the QCC became the first tournament Woods lost after taking the lead into Sunday. Entering the 2020 season, it remained one of just two of the 56 TOUR events Woods led after three rounds where he failed to close the deal.

Ed Fiori — a 43-year-old veteran more than 14 years removed from the last of three early career victories — spent the weekend literally chasing a Tiger, averaging 80 fewer yards off the tee than his youthful opponent and all but lost amid galleries of 10,000-plus angling for a look at the emerging new star.

Quad Citians were over-the-moon excited to see their long-beleaguered event claim a place in golf history as a potential legend’s first conquest. And Fiori — known across TOUR as “Grip” because of his right-hand-strong hold on the golf club — figured to be a soon-forgotten footnote.

Woods had opened with a 2-under 69 late Thursday, and then electrified all of Oakwood when he birdied six straight holes on his inward 9 to take his first lead as a professional on Friday morning.

“How good is it out here?” Nicholson wondered as Woods finished his second round atop the scoreboard. “You couldn’t write a better script. The golf gods are hitting 1-irons for us.”

Claude “Butch” Harmon Jr. succeeded Bob Fry as Crow Valley head pro and, in that role, helped Hougham and future Iowa Hawkeyes Gene Elliott and Greg Tebbutt refine their games. By 1996, Harmon was the best-known swing coach in golf, working with thoroughbreds such as Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros. Harmon maintained a condo near the Bettendorf golf course even as he rose to prominence from his new base in Las Vegas and took Woods under his wing.

“I think it’s great for the tournament, the whole area,” he said after his talented young pupil had charged to the front. “The 24 best players in the world are at the Presidents Cup, but this is still going to be the biggest story in golf. They are all going to be talking about this out there.”

Quite a few of those theys winged their way from there to here as Woods took a one-shot lead over Fiori into the final round. Among them was Associated Press golf writer Ron Sirak, who penned the most memorable lead in the aftermath of a deflating Sunday at Oakwood: It was quad city for Tiger Woods.

Indeed, 4s and fores set the tone for an overly aggressive Woods on a disastrous opening nine. He led Fiori by three when, on the fourth hole, he hooked his drive into an irrigation pond well left of the fairway. Then, after taking his drop, he tried to punch his recovery through an opening in the trees he later described as the size of a closet door. His shot didn’t make it through the “door” and he wound up losing four shots to par on the hole with a quadruple-bogey 8. The resulting four-shot swing put Woods behind for the first time since Friday morning.

Three holes later, Woods needed four putts from inside 8 feet and took a double-bogey. That was essentially that. Woods finished in a share of fifth place, four shots back of Fiori, who barely could disguise his glee at spoiling the celebration for the QC throng that came out to root Woods on.

Fiori spent the last years of his TOUR career reveling in his role as the Tiger Slayer. Or trying to, at least.

“When he beat Tiger in the QC, he looked at me and said, ‘Well, what are you going to call me now?’” remembered Dave Stockton, the ’73 QCO winner and one of the veteran pros who issued Fiori his nickname. “I said, ‘Have you changed your grip?’ He said, ‘No.’ And I said, ‘Well, you’re still the Grip then.’”

As for Woods? He recovered nicely, to say the least. His first win came three weeks later in Las Vegas. Another 81 PGA TOUR victories followed through the end of 2019, 15 of those major championships. After overcoming epic scandal and nearly a decade of debilitating injuries, Woods embellished his legend by winning the 2019 Masters in April. Then in October, he won the ZOZO Championship in Japan to join Sam Snead atop the TOUR’s all-time career wins list at 82.

Woods has not yet returned to the Quad Cities, but he’s not forgotten it either.

“I’m grateful for the support the tournament and the fans gave me when I played there in 1996 — there were big, enthusiastic crowds all week,” he said in the summer of 2019. “The Deere was an important part of a very memorable first year on TOUR.”

The Deere?

Oh, yes. The QC tourney recovered nicely — and quickly — from that disappointing Sunday as well. Within a matter of months, “It was quad city for Tiger Woods” decisively and magnificently would be yesterday’s news.

(This content, first published in 2021, is shared with the permission of the Quad City Golf Classic Charitable Foundation. Please consider a donation to Birdies for Charity.)