Those of us on Long Island who are not wrung out from the draining excitement of the U.S. Open are fortunate, because a PGA Tour tournament comes here next week. Actually, it is a Senior PGA Tour tournament, one now known as the Commerce Bank Championship.

Gary Player

I didn't agree with the switch five years ago by the PGA Tour leadership to the name Champions Tour. Yes, I can understand the marketing motives behind it, but many golf fans could hear the somewhat false ring to it. There are a lot of players on the Champions Tour who are – to put it bluntly – not champions. Most of them are not winners of major tournaments, and some of them never won a tournament on the PGA Tour. So how are they champions?

True, some undistinguished players flourished once they turned 50 and could play the senior circuit. In that regard, Allen Doyle, Bruce Fleisher, Jim Colbert, Walter Hall, and others can now be considered champions, joining fellows like Lee Trevino and Hale Irwin who already had championship credentials and then went on to have a wonderful time on the Champions Tour. But what about guys like Buddy Harston, Tim Conley, Jim Chancey, and Mitch Adams? How many championships have they collected on either tour?

Personally, I enjoy these Champions Tour events but I do think the inaccurate name has hurt the popularity of the tour. Two other factors have hurt the tour. One is the deal two or three years ago that put events almost exclusively on the Golf Channel. That channel is watched by avid golf fans and is becoming available in more homes around the U.S., but the Senior PGA Tour attracted family fans, men and women and youngsters who enjoyed the reputations of the players and the interaction with them at tournaments, and who were drawn to the more high-profile networks of CBS, NBC, and ESPN. I enjoyed bringing my son and daughter to these tourneys because of the relaxed banter with the gallery and it was easy to get an autograph from Chi Chi Rodriguez and Miller Barber. For the first year after the tour went to the Golf Channel my cable provider didn't provide that channel, so I fell out of the habit of watching Senior PGA Tour events, and I am far from alone.

The other factor is that in the last few years a few big-name players haven't participated much, and those who have haven't won consistently. The Senior PGA Tour really took off in the 1980s and grew in the '90s because of duels between and wins by Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Trevino, Dave Stockton, Chi Chi, and Gary Player. It's been a big loss that Johnny Miller never signed on, and that Tom Watson, Tom Kite, and Ben Crenshaw haven't won more events. It is good now to see such popular players as Jay Haas, Loren Roberts, Scott Hoch, Mark O'Meara, Chip Beck, Nick Price, Fuzzy Zoeller, Curtis Strange, and Craig Stadler competing on the Champions Tour, but still too often the winner's checks are being cashed by R.W. Eaks, David Eger, and Tom Jenkins.

Denis Watson

That having been said, it is still fun to attend a Champions Tour event. The players are more accessible and friendly to spectators. Except for the five majors – the first one of 2007 was the Senior PGA Championship (which dates from 1937) in May won by Denis Watson, and the next is the U.S. Senior Open July 5-8 -- the tourneys are 54 holes. The total purse of the Champions Tour is a healthy $54.1 million. Hale Irwin, a three-time U.S. Open winner, has earned three times as much on the senior circuit than he did on the PGA Tour. (By the way, how convenient it was for Denis Watson's wife that when she left him she married Tom Watson – she didn't even have to get a new driver's license!)

The tournament taking place at Eisenhower Park next week was founded in 1988 as the Northville Long Island Classic. Actually, it was first held as the Long Island Classic the year before and was won by Gary Player, but it was not an official stop on the tour until it received the sponsorship it needed. For many years it was held at the Meadow Brook Club, a beautiful and very typical old Northeast golf course (lots of trees and bunkers, narrow fairways, etc.) built in 1955. The late George Archer practically had half his career here, winning the tournament in 1990, '91, and '92.

It became even more appealing when the following year the event was won by Raymond Floyd, who is enormously popular on Long Island, especially in the Hamptons, for having won the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in 1986 and having a home in Southampton. Over the years he has traveled by helicopter to and from the Classic. Then the next two years the winner was Lee Trevino, another popular player. One more boost to its profile was the sentimental win by a returning Gary Player in 1998, when he was 63.

Mike Reid

It became the Lightpath Long Island Classic in 1999, then was without a sponsor in 2003. Commerce Bank came aboard in 2004 and that has been a big help. What hasn't been, however, is that the last two winners have been Ron Streck and John Harris, hardly household names. In recent years several of the biggest names on the Champions Tour have decided to skip a visit to Long Island.

This is too bad because it is an enjoyable tournament. The organizers and volunteers really work hard, and over the years millions of dollars of proceeds have gone to local charities. Fortunately, it's going to be different this year. Unlike in past years, the tourney before the Commerce Bank Classic is the Bank of America Championship in Massachusetts, and the event the week after is the U.S. Senior Open. Many of the top players want that two-week tune-up in the Northeast before the Open. And Eisenhower Park is a good test.

When the Classic was looking to move from the Meadow Brook Club, I hoped officials would look at the eastern end of Long Island as a venue. Montauk Downs on the ocean would have been a good choice. Another was the Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton, designed by Rees Jones, which has hosted two U.S. Golf Association events. And there was Long Island National in Riverhead, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. Alas, with the eastern course the problem is access. The USGA was able to host Opens at Shinnecock because it is right on the main highway and there was parking close by. There are local roads only going to Montauk Downs and Atlantic. I can still see Riverhead as a candidate, though.

Tom Watson

The Eisenhower Park golf courses are in East Meadow. The Commerce Bank Championship will be on the Red Course, the toughest of the three, and it has an interesting pedigree. It was originally the Salisbury Golf Club, designed by Devereaux Emmet. It was here that the 1926 PGA Championship was played, won by Walter Hagen, the third of his record-setting four consecutive PGA Championships. It was re-designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., who also created the White Course in 1950 and the Blue Course the following year. Any Jones course is a good test of golf.

I'm hoping that there will be a good crowd at Eisenhower Park next week. By the way, if you can't wait until then, head across the Long Island Sound to Connecticut where this week the Travelers Championship is being held at the TPC River Highlands outside Hartford. This tournament, begun in 1952, has gone through several sponsors over the years including Sammy Davis Jr. from 1973 to '88. It was at one of these events that he was asked what was his handicap. He replied, "I'm Jewish, black, and have only one eye. What else do you want to know?"