84 Lumber Classic
Joe Hardy Tees It Up
By Mike Dudurich

Joe Hardy is all about dreams or, more specifically, making dreams come true. That was the case when he founded 84 Lumber Company in 1956, and when he developed what has become a world-class resort, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa. As wacky as it sounded back then, he made it known that he hired one of the best golf course architects in the world, Pete Dye, to build a major league golf course at Nemacolin Woodlands, for one reason: to host a PGA Tour event.

Fast forward to late summer 2003; Joe Hardy is on the verge of the first 84 Lumber Classic of Pennsylvania, a real, live PGA Tour event, offering a purse of $4 million, with $720,000 to the winner. It will be held Sept. 15-21 on the Mystic Rock course at Nemacolin Woodlands.

"People in Western Pennsylvania just crave this," Hardy said. "They want this to be played every year. We will put our energy and our financial resources behind this and make this one of the best tournaments on Tour. And I think this will be a real spark for Fayette County and the surrounding area. I can't put a dollar figure on what kind of money we're talking about, but it will be significant."

For those who know him, they know money and significant money is not an issue with Hardy or his daughter, Maggie Hardy Magerko, the president of 84 Lumber and Nemacolin Woodlands. Ms. Magerko was recently ranked 288th on Forbes Magazine's "400 Richest People in America" list. It's because of that money people are thinking about making the trip to Farmington to watch the tournament.

Joe Hardy Steps Up

On the subject of dreams, Arnold Palmer had a long-standing dream of bringing a Tour event to Pennsylvania, something that last happened in the late 1970s. With the help of then-Governor Tom Ridge, the Pennsylvania Classic was born with a unique format that alternated the event between the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas. It opened in Philly in 2000 at Waynesborough Country Club, was contested in somber fashion the week after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 at Laurel Valley Golf Club near Ligonier, and moved back to Waynesborough in 2002.

The alternating format was used because PGA Tour Management, which ran the tournament those three years, couldn't find a title sponsor on either end of the state.

Just before last year's Pennsylvania Classic, Hardy stepped forward and said he'd fill that role. However, along with his kind offer came the addendum that the tournament would have to

be played on his Mystic Rock course at Nemacolin Woodlands.

The Tour really had no choice, since everyone involved knew it needed a permanent home to survive.

"Anytime you can associate with a national entity as a sponsor, it's a good thing," said PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. "Arnold was disappointed, especially because Laurel Valley is not in the mix. Laurel Valley is special to the PGA Tour, too, and we're disappointed, but we're going to a pretty special place. As you know, Arnold was very instrumental in bringing this to Pennsylvania and he's been very supportive about what's happening. He's not one to let a single negative thing affect what has been a very positive experience."

Full Corporate Support

The 84 Lumber Classic has had some obstacles to overcome, things like a bad date (mid-September with football season in high gear), an out-of-the way course and a field that will be less than stellar because of a combination of the first two. But give credit to the SFX Sports Group and its senior vice president, Bud Martin, who is also the executive director of the 84 Lumber Classic.

Thanks to the hard work of his staff and the power and influence of Nemacolin Woodlands and 84 Lumber, all of the corporate hospitality venues are taken, a rarity in these economically-challenged times. As a result, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and UPMC Health System, the beneficiaries of this event, will receive at least $500,000, which was the goal from the start.

The Players

A built-in problem for tournaments scheduled after Labor Day is most of the elite players have played all of the competitive golf they're going to play by then, and The 84 Lumber Classic is feeling the effects of that.

Without the chance to get Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III, Ernie Els, etc., the field will generally break down this way: one group of players who are in the vicinity of the top 30 on the money list, hoping to get into the lucrative, season-ending Tour Championship; and another group of players in the vicinity of No. 125 on the money list, the cutoff for full playing privileges next year. After that, it's anybody's guess who will show up and for what reasons.

Near the end of August the official commitment list: albeit a very fluid one: looked like this: Robert Allenby, Aaron Baddeley, Chad Campbell, John Daly, Chris DiMarco, Joe Durant, Dan Forsman, Fred Funk, Scott Hoch, Charles Howell III, Peter Jacobsen, Lee Janzen, Jerry Kelly, Matt Kuchar, Hank Kuehne, Len Mattiace, Scott McCarron, Rocco Mediate, Chris Riley, John Rollins, Scott Verplank and Duffy Waldorf. DiMarco (2000), Allenby (2001) and Forsman (2002) won the first three editions of the tournament. Mediate, a Greensburg native, grew up approximately an hour from Nemacolin Woodlands. Daly is the Tour representative and spokesman for 84 Lumber, who caught the eye of Hardy and his family when Daly was struggling with one of his many "life crises" . Daly is a two-time major champion, but he's best-known for his length off the tee. He did a publicity outing for the event in May where he drove four balls across the Monongahela River.

What You Will See

If you make the trip to Nemacolin Woodlands, you'll find tickets are reasonably priced: $11 for practice round tickets; $22 for competition days and $84 (get it? $84) for a weekly badge.

The course has been stretched to 7,058 yards from its original 6,832 yards. Seven holes have been lengthened with the construction of new tee boxes at Nos. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 15. Bunkers have been redesigned on the 7th and 11th holes, new bunkers were added on the 12th and 15th fairways and all bunker sand has been replaced with white PGA Tour sand. The course is first and foremost a resort course, one that features wide fairways with enough water, trees and bunkers to make things interesting. How the pros will handle it remains to be seen.

It is not a long course by today's standards, so length will not be an issue, as long as the weather cooperates. Nice calm, sunny September days will lead to some mighty impressive scores. If the wind blows and the weather is less than ideal, things could get a little dicey for the field; especially on the second hole, a 460-yard par four over a lake that requires a healthy carry, even for those guys.

Hardy, who is hoping to be elected a Fayette County commissioner this fall, says he's always looking to add to what is already in place on top of the mountain.

"We want to identify things and bring them here," he said. "That's the way we operate around here. This is a fun place. We have a sense of humor."

Mike Dudurich is sports editor for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.