SHORE'
COULD
HAVE
HAPPENED
HERE."
–
LARRY
BOHANNON
"The single greatest regret of my career is that the 1991 Ryder Cup
was not played in the Coachella Valley at PGA WEST," Bohannon
said. "When the PGA Championship was played at Kiawah earlier this
year, it brought back some bad memories."
The 1991 Ryder Cup would have been the third held in the Coachella
Valley – after the 1955 event at Thunderbird and in 1959 at El
Dorado. While many assumed it would be played on the Pete Dye
Stadium Course, in reality it was being planned for either the Arnold
Palmer Private Course or the Jack Nicklaus Private Course.
So what happened? Golf Digest reported earlier this year that the
PGA of America was concerned about playing the Ryder Cup in the
Pacific Time Zone and wanted to make it more accessible to television
viewers in Europe, and that there was a feeling at the time among the
developers of PGA WEST that the Coachella Valley already had its
share of professional golf tournaments.
"Put it all together, and they stole our Ryder Cup," Bohannon said
with a laugh. "The 'War by the Shore' could have happened here. Any
of the courses at PGA WEST would have been terrific venues for an
event that was being played at a fever pitch at that time."
1e Arnold Palmer Private Course
was intended to host the Ryder Cup.
