THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS | In her pre-tournament press conference ahead of the first Chevron Championship to be held outside of California, Stacy Lewis said: “I got on a committee to help with the move. Chevron put together a player advisory group. They wanted to know what was important to us to make the championship special. There's obviously a lot of traditions with this event, and (Chevron wanted to know) what traditions were most important to us. They asked current players; they asked retired players; they asked everybody.
“To me, Dinah is and was the most important thing. You can take the leap in Poppie’s Pond and all that kind of stuff, but to me, there's a reason Dinah is the only non-playing person in our LPGA Hall of Fame. There’s a reason for that.”
The company did its best. A hospitality pavilion around the 18th green was called Dinah’s Place, and there was an homage to the late entertainer near the entrance. The clubhouse at Carlton Woods hung photos of past winners, and a strong contingent of legends, including the first tournament champion, Jane Blalock, were picked up and delivered to Carlton Woods in a Rolls-Royce limousine.
But as good as this Chevron Championship was last week, there are some things you can’t replicate – the snowcapped San Jacinto Mountains as a backdrop on every hole; the roads named after long-dead celebrities from Ginger Rogers and Monty Hall to Bob Hope and Dean Martin; driving past Walter Annenberg’s place on the way to the course, and houses that looked like something out of a Sean Connery “James Bond” film.
Restaurants are great in The Woodlands, but you can’t have dinner at Arnold Palmer’s where The King’s workbench and several sets of his clubs are littered throughout the dining room.
Most of all, as hard as Chevron worked to keep the memory of Dinah Shore alive at the event she founded in 1972, nothing beat the statue at the 18th, or the stories that were shared by longtime desert residents every spring.
Dinah used to host a dinner for players and a few of her friends. Of course, when her friends were Burt Reynolds, George Carlin, and Gerald and Betty Ford it was the kind of shindig you tried not to miss.
Every season, Dinah would perform a few numbers to cap off the evening. One year, after thanking everyone for coming, she said, “I know I always sing, but I’m battling a sore throat and I can’t this year. But I got a substitute. I hope you don’t mind. Please welcome, Frank Sinatra.”
Sinatra performed a 20-minute set. That’s the kind of moment Dinah relished.
And despite good effort and plenty of new traditions, that’s something you can never move to Texas.
Steve Eubanks
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