"Greensboro, in fact does have many good things going for it, but even our boosters dismiss Greensboro – intentionally –when there is a marketing opportunity."He's right. The coming Wyndham Championship P.G.A. golf tournament is a good example of just how much Greensboro's identity has been subverted. Local media decline to identify the tournament as taking place in Greensboro, instead giving credit to "the Triad."
Even the naming of the tournament has discarded what was once a proud association with its host city—and not just because of the introduction of a single corporate sponsor. What was once the Greater Greensboro Open morphed into the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic, still preserving Greensboro's identification. Now Greensboro is gone from the name entirely although it's still played in Greensboro.
Even the memory of Greensboro's involvement is vanishing. During last week's Bridgestone Invitational, as Tiger Woods was about to win that tournament for the eighth time, the CBS announcers commented that only Sam Snead has won a single tournament as many times.
"Sam Snead won the Wyndham Championship eight times," they said.Sam Snead would have to have been close to 100 years-old to have ever won a Wyndham Championship. The fact is, Snead never won the Wyndham Championship. He did win the Greater Greensboro Open eight times.
Comments are welcomed below, or you can send a letter to: P.O. Box 555, The Triad
To give CBS a little credit, they did eventually mention Sam Sneed winning 8 times in "Greensboro", but yea, the Wyndham references have been driving me nuts.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, I have a cousin in Raleigh-Durham who says there is absolutely no marketing down there for The Wyndham.
I must have missed that, although they did talk about coming to Greensboro in what was, then, two weeks. I think the point still stands though.
ReplyDeleteWho diead and left these people in charge?
ReplyDelete