GGOne with the Wyndham: Greensboro's name is no longer on the tournament, but other changes might mean more top pros and fewer no-shows.

Mark Brazil still remembers the sick-to-his-stomach feeling. The tournament director of what was then the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro was standing on the range at the Wachovia Championship in May 2005 when the rumors about the 2007 PGA Tour schedule hit home in a big way. The shortened season would mean some smaller-market tournaments would die. His was a smaller-market tournament. "If we didn't move fast, our tournament in Greensboro would be history," Brazil recalls thinking that day in Charlotte.

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He and other Greensboro tournament and civic officials moved quickly. Talk all you want about upsets--Villanova beating Georgetown for the NCAA basketball title in 1985, N.C. State's 1983 NCAA title or even Rocky Balboa beating Apollo Creed in Rocky II. But the Greensboro tournament, now the Wyndham Championship, achieved one of the bigger upsets in recent sports memory by making the cut on the slimmed-down PGA Tour schedule.

What it took for Brazil and other tournament officials was hard work, money, some more hard work and some more money. In a bold move, the tournament changed its operation, even pushing the volunteer organization that founded the event, the Greensboro Jaycees, to the background. That's because the PGA Tour doesn't want volunteer groups running the show anymore. It wants tournaments to have sound business plans and leaders that carry on from year to year rather than having to quit at age 40.

It wasn't easy to find the money and people to save the tournament, particularly since DaimlerChrysler had announced the fall 2006 event would be its final as title sponsor. Tournament officials recruited more than 20 Triad business leaders to form the Greensboro Jaycees Charitable Foundation Board. The board pledged a $25 million letter of credit to the PGA Tour until a title sponsor could be found. How important was the letter of credit? One longtime event, The International, played in Colorado, was dropped from the 2007 schedule in part because it couldn't find a sponsor.

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PGA Tour brass came away impressed by how swiftly the foundation board evolved and how hard it worked to keep Greensboro one of the longest-running PGA Tour tournaments. "This is a group of folks who will continue to push this tournament to bigger things," says Tim Crosby, the tour's director of business affairs. "They aren't going to just sit by and say, 'OK, we've got the tournament now.' They are going to keep going and want to make it even better."

As it turned out, the letter of credit wasn't needed when Parsippany, N.J.-based hotel chain Wyndham Worldwide Corp. agreed in late 2006 to a $25 million deal to sponsor the next four years, with an option for two more. While Gate City leaders are thrilled the event has a sponsor, some are concerned that Greensboro--which has hosted the tournament since 1938--is no longer in the name.

But such is the cost of doing business today. "If you're the title sponsor and you're putting up $5 million to $7 million a year, you're not going to want the media to have an opportunity to call it something else," Brazil says. "For a long time, people have been calling this event Greensboro. Now they are going to have to call it the Wyndham Championship." The name isn't the only change. Prices for luxury suites and corporate tents could increase by as much as 20%, according to Brazil. That means a suite around the 18th green could cost about $48,000 for the 2007 tournament, which for the first time will be played in the summer (Aug. 16-19). "We should not be happy with where we are now," he says of the wave of excitement surrounding the new sponsor. "The board has worked too hard to save this tournament, so we can't let up."

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Bobby Long, the chairman of the foundation, knows it. He jokes that he might frame the letter of credit, because it's part of the history of what locals--regardless of the sponsor--will always call the GGO, after its original name, the Greater Greensboro Open. Long was one of many who worked behind the scenes to help secure the tournament's future. The foundation hired Mark Steinberg, best known as Tiger Woods' agent. He lobbied the PGA Tour to keep Greensboro on the schedule. Sources say Steinberg was paid around $500,000 for his efforts. "There's no question Mark helped us and he worked behind the scenes with the PGA Tour to make sure the Greensboro tournament had a voice," Brazil says. "To see guys like Mark Steinberg and Bobby Long and [longtime Greensboro business leader] Jim Melvin working to help keep this tournament was great. It was just perfect timing that it all worked out."

The PGA Tour doesn't discuss negotiations with individual tournaments. But without solid financial backing, the organization wasn't going to keep Greensboro on the 2007 schedule. From the time Brazil received word that Greensboro could have a summer date on the schedule, "we had 10 days to come up with that letter of credit," he says. "And our foundation board got it done. I don't think there are a whole lot of tournaments out there that could have done this in that short amount of time."

Now that organizers have secured the tournament for the next six years, they have moved to the issue of recruiting a better field. Davis Love III, a former UNC Chapel Hill star, won the event last October for the second time. But the rest of the top 10 was filled with such names as Daniel Chopra and Troy Matteson, not Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. And the year before wasn't much better, although Tour favorite Sergio Garcia did play, tying for sixth.

One thing that might help is a move to another course in Greensboro. While Forest Oaks has been the event's home for the past 30 years, its location about 15 minutes south of the city and its small, antiquated clubhouse are considered negatives. Even though Love redesigned the layout in 2003, there still are players who dislike the course and have stayed away. Possible sites include Sedgefield Country Club, where the tournament has been played more than 20 times, including from 1961 to 1976, and Cardinal Country Club, purchased last summer by Raleigh's John McConnell. But both Sedgefield and Cardinal are being renovated, which means that the tournament will remain at Forest Oaks this year. "I wouldn't want to see it go," Love says. "But I've learned enough from the [PGA Tour board] that sometimes change is inevitable."

Long says the tournament board has a responsibility to explore its options. "Nobody's questioning that Forest Oaks is a great golf course. But any good stewards of the tournament would want to know their options."

Another thing that could help attract better players is the revamping of the PGA Tour schedule. The Tour is instituting a playoff system similar to NASCAR's. Players will compete all season long to win points that will qualify them for a four-week playoff. The Wyndham Championship will be the final regular-season tournament, meaning it will be the last chance for some players to qualify. "I think our field is going to dramatically improve from these last couple of years," Brazil says. The schedule change still might not produce a field with Woods or Mickelson. But at worst, it will add drama to an event that once boasted winners with names such as Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros.

Another boon for the tournament is Love. "It's not going to be hard to market that," Brazil says about having the Charlotte native as the tournament's defending champion. "Now we have Davis Love lifting that Sam Snead Cup [the winner's trophy]. We couldn't ask for a better picture than that."

Davis Love III, who redesigned the Forest Oaks Country Club in 2003, won the Greensboro tournament last year.