The end of the 24-year run of what's currently known as the Acura Classic women's tennis tournament exposes a major shortcoming in the San Diego sports scene that is rarely discussed: the lack of major golf and tennis tournaments in this town.
The day I write and post this entry is the final day of this year's Acura tourney at La Costa. The tournament has been excellent, as always, with a quarterfinal upset of Wimbledon champion Venus Williams and surging new stars in Anna Chakvetadze and Patty Schnyder (pronounced Schnee-der, don't ask about the other one!). Yet the two women who run the event have sold it to the tour, which will use it's Tier 1 rating to begin a new tournament in China (players, bring your own toothpaste).
So now, among the most popular participation sports in the world, you have one regular tournament in San Diego, the Buick Invitational in men's golf. I've been in San Diego for decades and do not remember a women's golf tournament. The last men's tennis event in town was a special senior's tournament I covered in Rancho Bernardo that featured John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. It was a lot of fun, but no men's tourney followed. Now the Acura is gone.
The golf situation, I understand not at all. San Diego has a number of wonderful courses and to run a tournament, you really just need somewhere to put up a couple of large tents and have parking nearby. Our county is one of the top destinations for duffers. The PGA thinks highly enough of the area to place the US Open at Torrey Pines next year.
Yet, the World Match Play Championship, which has been at La Costa several times, has picked up and left a couple of times. And the women, who play a perfectly good brand of golf, haven't been here and, far as I can tell, aren't planning to come.
Tennis, I do kind of understand. Unlike golf, where you can throw up some tents and temporary grandstands around the last coupe holes, a major tennis tournament requires an actual stadium. In that regard, we fall short. As nice an environment as La Costa offers, center court is quite temporary in nature. Parking is expensive and a long walk from the court. The benches are very hard on the average bottom. Concessions are kind of scattered about.
Compare that to the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort in Indian Wells, which is where we'll have to drive now to see tennis. Even though it's about 20 years old now, the stadium is first-rate. It's what we need in San Diego.
There's always discussion in this town about building a downtown arena for a prospective NBA team or NHL squad. But those are pipe dreams. San Diego has lost two chances to support the NBA and only in the last couple years has given San Diego State solid backing. Ice hockey? Be serious.
Golf and tennis, however, are sports made for San Diego, and which have been embraced by San Diegans. Let's cut out the talk about hoops and hockey and let's do what we need to get some top notch ladies golf, and men's and women's tennis tournaments right here in America's Finest City.
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