Doing Well: Hickory tourney thrives

CONOVER -- While sitting in class at Reynolds High School in the late 1960s Jim Correll never dreamed he would one day be running a Champions Tour tournament.

"No, I never thought I'd be here doing this," said Correll, 59, who was the co-captain of the 1967 Reynolds football team in his senior season.

Correll has been running the highly successful Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn since 2002 after first taking a marketing position with the tournament. Because of his ties to the Hickory community, he moved there in 1983 after growing up on Angelo Street right next to St. Leo's School in Winston-Salem. Correll quickly became the face of the tournament.

Through a lot of knocking on doors and promoting the tournament, the Greater Hickory Classic is surviving despite a rough economic climate.

Maybe it's Correll's football mentality (he also played two years of football at Elon), but he hasn't backed down from trying to make the tournament one of the best on tour. Fans have supported the tournament every year and for the first time tournament officials had to cut off the volunteer list.

"With this community not having a major sporting event or a major college nearby, this tournament is the biggest sporting event in Western North Carolina," Correll said. "The hospitality that we provide for the players and their wives is something we have always had, and you hear the players say it all the time but they love coming here because they feel so welcome. In some of the other bigger cities they kind of get lost in the shuffle."

What also has helped the tournament prosper has been Don Beaver's large pockets. Beaver, who owns Rock Barn, has put a lot of money into the tournament for the last six years. The tournament will continue in 2009 with an option for 2010, but the tournament hopes to have another title sponsor in the future.

"Don's been very supportive of this tournament," Correll said. "But if we can somehow get another title sponsor then I think the tournament would have a longer life."

Correll said he's learned a lot about running a tournament through trial and error. Some ideas have worked better than others, such as making Dale Jarrett an honorary chairman. Jarrett's early week shootout with other NASCAR drivers and Champions Tour players is one of the tournament's most successful events.

"It's totally strange," Correll said about how he became a tournament director, "but the common thing is I've always loved sports and my kids have always been involved in sports. I knew, when we had an opportunity to get this tournament, I knew this was going to be my cup of tea."

After graduating from Elon in 1972, Correll started a 20-year career in banking and then dabbled in marketing furniture. When he got involved in the Greater Hickory Classic, he thrived at going out into the community to sell the tournament.

Correll is active on the Champions Tour Tournament Association, and has made sure to learn everything he can about how the tour wants things to be run during tournament week.

Correll said that friends and family always ask him what he does during the rest of the year.

"I had no idea what it took to run a professional sporting event," Correll said. "A lot of people don't know until they are actually doing it. A lot of people ask me ‘Well, what do you do the other 10 months?' But it's surprising how much planning there is involved with everything.

"We're already looking at '09 with regards to the dates and what we can do better."

Getting to see fans flock to the tournament every year is rewarding for Correll, but there's another part that means a lot more to him.

After the tournament adds up its receipts and starts doling out checks to charity, Correll personally delivers the checks around the Hickory area. So far the tournament has raised more than $600,000 in six years.

"The most rewarding thing is what it does for the community," Correll said. "The smile on people's faces when we go out and hand checks to people really is great to see. We do it personally with the big checks and we take pictures and that gives you a nice feeling.

"That makes everything worth it."

Champions Tour qualifying

The Champions Tour will go back to its old way of qualifying for next season.

The top five finishers in this fall's qualifying tournament will receive fully exempt status for 2009. The players who finish sixth through 12th will get conditional cards.

The last two years the top finishers in qualifying school got into the Monday-qualifying tournaments and still had to play well there to get into tournaments.

Mike Stevens, the president of the Champions Tour since April, said: "The credit goes to our Player Advisory Council and Player Directors who ultimately approved this change which will provide more season-long access to players who do well in our National Qualifying Tournament."

Two of the locals who are expected to compete in the qualifying tournament are Eric Lawhon and Todd Brown. Lawhon is planning on turning professional and Brown has been on various pro tours for the last three years.

Around the green

The Carolinas Senior Amateur was shortened because of dense fog that rolled in at Roaring Gap last week. The 54-hole tournament was shortened to 18 holes with Paul Simson being declared the winner with a 6-under 65. Lex Alexander of Chapel Hill, a former golfer at Wake Forest, shot 69 to tie for second….

The Champions Tour Tournament Association awarded Bob Goalby the winner of the "Bruno Award." The Bruno Award is given annually to an individual who has made special contributions to the Champions Tour. Goalby, 79, was in Conover last week for the Greater Hickory Classic's Great Grand Champions Pro-Am. Goalby, the 1968 Masters winner who is an uncle of Jay and Jerry Haas, will be presented with the award next month….

Uly Grisette of Clemmons shot a final-round 66 yesterday to win the North Carolina Mid-Amateur at Sedgefield Country Club. Grisette, who in August won the Forsyth Invitational, beat Scott Harvey by six shots. Grisette, 42 and a former golfer at N.C. State, regained his amateur status in late July. Grisette shot 68-70-66 to finish at 9 under.

■ John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or at jdell@wsjournal.com.