Century Club’s invitational golf tournament returns to Torrey Pines as San Diego Open Jan. 25-31

By Lee Schoenbart

Tom Wilson, executive director of the Century Club.

“Everything old is new again” has multiple meanings this new year of the new decade. The Century Club has redubbed its 58th annual golf tournament the San Diego Open.
The Jan. 25-31 event at Torrey Pines Golf Course was to be called the Century Club Invitational of San Diego until its board quite recently decided the attention should focus on the community at large and not the organization.
“We just made a decision to shorten it because of the timeframe we have to make it a little easier to roll off the tongue for people to talk about our tournament,” said Tom Wilson, executive director of the Century Club. “We’re going to go retro and go back to calling it the San Diego Open.
“It was a way to do one of the things that is in our mission statement, which is to promote San Diego on a national basis. We want to give San Diego the biggest bang for the buck and the Century Club of San Diego Invitational was put in place when we didn’t have a sponsor, but the tour had to put a name in that slot for that tournament week. What we decided at that time was not only to promote San Diego, but also to promote the organization that actually manages and runs it every year – the Century Club of San Diego.”
Wilson, now in his 18th year with the club and the tournament’s director, noted the San Diego Open dates back to 1952. “This is going to be the 58th PGA tournament here in San Diego and the 48th year the Century Club has been involved with it,” he said.
The Century Club is comprised of 77 men and women community leaders from across the county. Wilson said that because the club’s members have such diverse business and professional backgrounds it enables them to market the tournament quite effectively.
That marketing savvy is the membership’s strong suit. They serve on committees for the club’s myriad activities that take place during tournament time, including the gala, gala auction, player’s relations, pro-am and military appreciation.
Wilson referred to the members as “the marketing arm of tournament.” He said, “Whatever we have to offer to potential clients/customers/patrons/sponsors, whatever you want to call them, they (the members) are the ones that go out and do the majority of the selling for the tournament so that we can generate funds to where our net proceeds end up going to charity.”
Two of those philanthropic endeavors are the club’s SOS Program and Chip-In for Charity.
“Those are two programs that directly impact high schools, middle schools and 501(c)(3) charities,” Wilson said.
Both programs work on similar premises. For SOS programs, students sell a half-price ticket for $17 and get to keep $15. Wilson said the schools have sold $500,000 to $600,000.
“It’s a great way to have the community support their schools and know that the vast majority of the funds are going back to the schools,” he said. “Charities that participate in that program have sold somewhere between $100,000 to $200,000 worth of tickets.”
The club’s greatest success also belongs to the city- and county-based charities.
“We’re sneaking up on being involved with this tournament for 50 years and during that timeframe we’ve been able to generate almost $20 million to local charities, which is probably the most heart-felt success that we have,” Wilson stated. “Of course, we’ve been able to crown several champions that are some of the best players in the world over the years, including Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Phil Mickelson and, of course, Tiger Woods.”
Folks are invited to come for the tournament, stay for one of the most breathtaking views of the Pacific and by doing so will be aiding many of the less fortunate during these tough economic times.
“Even if you don’t want to watch all the golf,” Wilson said, “you can sit there and watch the water with a great point of view knowing that when they are out there participating, they are supporting somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 charities that benefit from our tournament each year.”
For club information, call (858) 886-4653.
Tickets range in price from $105 for a season badge that is good for the week to $16 a day for senior citizens. For the tourney, call 858-535-4500.
To learn more, visit www.centuryclubsd.org and www.centuryclubofsandiego.org.
Check out the course at Torrey Pines for the tourney by launching this map: www.centuryclubsd.org/course.php?menu_id=5.