Fortunately, most of golf’s living legends congregate in one place annually at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club in Orlando.
From Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Hale Irwin to John Daly, Nick Price and Nick Faldo, the fairways are teeming with golf icons at the PNC Father Son Challenge, which is staged every December. The unique tournament joins 20 of golf’s legends with their son or daughter in a professional competition.
If you want to see some of golf’s biggest and most popular stars up close and personal, I highly suggest you attend this tournament. The stars are very approachable off the course and the crowds are limited so you’re often just a few feet away on tee boxes and greens from some of the greatest players who’ve ever picked up a club. Better still, the tickets are very reasonably priced.
The Ritz Carlton Golf Club, which sits behind The Ritz-Carlton, Orlando and JW Marriott Orlando hotels at Grande Lakes Resort, is fairly flat and an easy walk so you can stroll along with the greats. An excellent resort course, it was designed by Greg Norman.
I’ve attended the tournament for several years and it’s easily become one of my favorites to enjoy and celebrate the great game of golf. No other sport celebrates its great players like golf.
This year the team of John Daly and “Little John” Daly stole the show, so to speak, with their brightly colored pants/shorts, friendly demeanor and long balls off the tee. The tournament winners were David Duval and his stepson Nick Karavites, who out dueled Fred Funk and his son Taylor and Retief Goosen and his son Leo.
Some of the other greats who teed it up at the 2016 PNC Father Son Challenge were Raymond Floyd, Larry Nelson, Vijay Singh, Curtis Strange, Lanny Wadkins, Lee Janzen, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer, Stewart Cink, Steve Elkington and Mark O’Meara. All the participating pros must have won a Major or a Players Championship to be part of the field.The absence of Arnold Palmer was clearly felt this year. Arnie absolutely loved the tournament and participated seven times. Palmer was instrumental in launching the event more than 20 years ago.
Baseball has its Old-Timers games and football greats gather at the Pro Football Hall of Fame every year, but golf has arguably the best way to see and enjoy its greatest stars–it’s called the PNC Father Son Challenge.
See you there next year!
