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Home > Archive > Jul 5, 2007

National Golf League Looks to Expand to St. George
By Stephen Vincent
The Roadrunners brought professional team sports back to St. George this summer.
But they might not be the only St. George pro sports team for long.
The National Golf League, a league that builds tournaments around the idea of team play, is looking to expand to St. George.
The NGL, which has 12 franchises in California and is in its fourth season, is expanding to an Arizona division.
NGL Commissioner Bob Aube had planned to include a franchise in Las Vegas as part of the Arizona league. But as he traveled through Arizona securing ownerships of those franchises, the people in Arizona kept asking him to take a look at St. George.
Soon thereafter, Aube began drawing up plans to include a Utah club in his expansion plans.
The possibility of a pro golf team in St. George is not yet definite. Only one expansion franchise remains available, and the owner of that franchise will decide where it will play. But the Aube is hoping to persuade the new owner to place the team in St. George.
Aube said he is already finding plenty of interest in the St. George area for the NGL, including interest in owning the franchise. To purchase the team, owners must pay $75,000.
If placed in St. George, the team will serve as the league's Utah franchise, just as the Jazz are the state's NBA franchise. As such, the team will likely be called Utah. Aube has suggested a few names for the new franchise: Blades, Aces, or Shots, but the ultimate decision of the team nickname belongs to the owner.
Sunbrook and Coral Canyon golf courses have expressed interest in becoming the home course for the new franchise, Aube said.
When asked if St. George had a good chance of receiving the franchise, Aube said, “Absolutely.
It has a good chance because I got golf courses who want to do it,” he said.
Aube said St. George is being looked at for several reasons.
Perhaps the biggest and most-important factor is cost-effectiveness. The NGL is looking to expand into the state of the Utah, yet the traveling costs of a team placed in the Arizona Division would be substantially higher for a franchise placed in Salt Lake than it is for one located in St. George.
For now, the NGL's plan has been to centralize its competition to keep costs down.
The NGL does, however, have plans to expand to include a league in Florida, and one in the Great Lakes area.
Besides the cost factor, the NGL tries to keep the teams concentrated to create strong rivalries.
That was one of the things Aube believed was missing from the PGA Tour. Much of what the NGL does differently from the PGA addresses changes Aube believes needed to be made in pro golf.
Aube was a former caddie on the PGA Tour, and he felt that the PGA was not providing a fan-friendly experience, nor did he believe it was fueling the kind of interest that comes from rooting for your hometown team.
“You're always told, 'Don't move, don't use your camera, don't use your cell phone,'” said Aube of PGA Tour Events. “You don't feel like customers. But if you go to a Utah Jazz game, you feel like a customer. I felt that was the same kind of excitement that golf needed.”
Aube saw the kind of passion, excitement and rivalry ound in the NBA in the Ryder Cup, so he patterned his league after that competition.
A tournament is comprised of six teams, and each team has six players. A pairing from each team competes against playing partners from three other teams on each hole.
On each hole, a pairing can win a point for their team. In the first round of the tournament, the teams play “Best Ball”: each player hits his own ball until the hole is completed. The pairing with the lowest score wins a point for their team.
In the next round, the pairings play “Alternate Shot,” as the players taking turns hitting the ball. The playing partners with the lowest score on that hole win a point for their team.
In the final round, they play a “Scramble,” with both of the partners hitting off the tee. Whichever of those shots was hit the best is the one both partners will use for their second shot. This continues until one of the partners holes a shot. The team that reaches the hole with the lowest score wins a point for their team.
The last hole, however, is worth three points, adding some drama on the 18th green. Because of the excitement on the 18th, the NGL tries to build an “arena” around the green, where fans can yell their support for their favorite team.
All this adds up to a fantastic finish to a golf tournament, Aube said.
And Aube hopes that one day soon, the people of St. George will be able to see such an ending to an NGL tournament as they root for their hometown team.

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