Even the best California golfers don't play in the Bob Hope Classic anymore.
Phil Mickelson, a two-time Hope champion, will open his 2011 season in the desert this week when the tournament is played for the 52nd time, but he will be almost halfway around the world at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in the United Arab Emirates.
Anthony Kim, who graduated from La Quinta High just down the street from the Hope courses, and owns a home in the area, angered local residents when he skipped the tournament last year to play in Abu Dhabi. He's not entered in either event this year.
Rickie Fowler, the PGA Tour's reigning Rookie of the Year, who grew up not far away in Murrieta, missed the cut in the Hope last year and will pass on the event before starting his season next week in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
And Tiger Woods never has played in what one writer last year called the Hopeless Classic, the last 90-hole tournament on the PGA Tour.
What started out as the Palm Springs Golf Classic has been a fixture on the PGA Tour since 1962, when Arnold Palmer claimed the first of his record five titles in the Southern California desert event.
Palmer edged Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller in what by 1973 had become the Bob Hope Desert Classic, claiming the last of his 62 victories on the circuit.
The Hope champions list also includes such illustrious names as Nicklaus, Miller, Billy Casper, Doug Sanders, Tommy Jacobs, Bob Rosburg, Craig Stadler, Corey Pavin, Lanny Wadkins, Tom Kite, Fred Couples and Hubert Green.
The event that starts the California portion of the PGA Tour, however, has struggled to draw the best names in golf since famed entertainer and tournament host Bob Hope died in 2003, to the point where it is now on the PGA Tour's endangered list.
The Hope has been without a title sponsor since Chrysler, which had its name on the event since 1986, pulled out after filing for bankruptcy and accepting federal bailout money in summer 2009.
Tournament officials have tried to give the event a shot in the arm by hiring Larry Thiel, who has had success with Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament and the International, as tournament director.
"Stories about our struggles over the last few years, they may have been real, but they have been grossly exaggerated," Thiel said bravely on the tournament's Media Day recently at PGA West in La Quinta, which features two of the four courses in the tournament rotation — the Palmer and the Nicklaus.
"This is not the end of the Bob Hope Classic. This is the beginning of some very, very successful years."
In addition to defending champion Bill Haas, whose father Jay won the tournament in 1988, the Hope field also includes Matt Kuchar, Bubba Watson, Justin Leonard, Stewart Cink, David Toms, Boo Weekley, Mike Weir and Mark Calcavecchia.
Kuchar, who led the PGA Tour money list and captured the Vardon Trophy last season, is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 13 in the World Golf Rankings last week. Next highest was Watson, at No. 33.
Thiel was holding out Hope for Mickelson, until Lefty made the announcement in November that he will be playing in the Middle East for the first time, taking his family and instructor Butch Harmon with him.
"Needless to say, I am disappointed," Thiel said. "However, I never had a commitment from him to play. What I received from his management people was that if Phil did not to go to Abu Dhabi, he would certainly want to play in the Hope."
Mickelson claimed the Hope title in 2002 and 2004 but has not played in the tournament since 2007, reportedly because he is not happy with some of the courses in the rotation.
What has to hurt even more is that Lefty, who has won 17 times in California and Arizona, will fly back from Abu Dhabi to play next week in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines and might be in the field for every other event on the West Coast Swing.
The Hope and other struggling events on the PGA Tour, such as the John Deere Classic, the Valero Texas Open, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and the Transitions Championship, were supposed to get some help this year.
Last summer, something called the Designated Tournament Plan was hailed by PGA Tour officials and players as a way to boost struggling events. Under the plan, the top 30 to 50 golfers (the number was never agreed upon) would be required to play in one of the designated struggling tournaments.
Steve Stricker went so far as to say there was "really, zero negativity," to the idea.
The plan passed a preliminary vote of the PGA Tour Policy Board, which is composed of Davis Love III, Zach Johnson, Brad Faxon and Toms, in July. But when it came to the final vote in November, it was voted down by the board.
"At first, I know it sounded like a good idea, but the more we looked into it and talked to tournament directors, . . . we just felt it would make tournaments sound like second-tier events, and we're not so sure that's a good thing," Faxon said.
Some people blamed the tournament directors of those events that might have been designated, who reportedly feared it might become something of a stigma, even though Craig Smith of the Valero Texas Open said his tournament would have welcomed the designation.
Others put the blame on top players such as Woods and Mickelson, who because of their status have been able to pass on venues and events they dislike and have been roundly criticized for it.
The pros, dating to the days of Nicklaus and Palmer, have clung doggedly to the notion that they are independent contractors and, as such, should be able to set their own schedules without outside influences.
Wherever the fault lies, it took away new hope for tournaments like the Hope.
