Even for the golfers, the Galleri Classic had the feeling of a bigger tournament

How quickly has the Galleri Classic become a big part of the PGA Tour Champions? Consider the words of David Toms, the champion of the inaugural event, after Sunday’s final round.

“It certainly for me had a bigger feel to it than, say, when we used to come here to play what was then the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, because it was a different type of event,” Toms said. “We had a lot of amateurs playing with us, celebrities, things like that. This felt like a really important event.”

The first-year tournament offered a lot of the trappings of an event that was bigger than a regular senior event. There was the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills, a course many golf fans and even the players are familiar with because it hosted an LPGA major championship for 51 years. There was a sponsor in Grail that was pushing its early detection cancer test, something many of the players took to heart.

And there is the time of year, ending the opening segment of the PGA Tour Champions and just two weeks before the Masters. That timing also produced crowds that were larger than the Champions Tour generally sees.

More:Did David Toms leap into Poppie's Pond after Galleri Classic win at Mission Hills?

“What you saw is you saw some good crowds out there, people interested,” Toms said. “This is a great time of year to be here. A lot of us still live in places where the weather's very unpredictable so it's nice to be here.”

Certainly the PGA Tour Champions already has its five major championships, but there is always room for tournaments that feel bigger than others. The people behind the Galleri Classic can feel pleased that their tournament seemed to deliver on most fronts in 2023.

”The guys that didn't come, they will be here (next year) just because the word will get out on what a nice event it was and how good the golf course held up,” Toms said.

Second-year improvements

Tournament director Michelle DeLancy said before the tournament that some people in the desert had a wait-and-see attitude about the Galleri Classic. With one successful year under its belt, the tournament should be able to capitalize on that next year in some areas.

That would include more robust sales of pro-am spots for the two one-day pro-ams. Those sales might also be helped by the tournament being one week later, from March 29-31, in 2024, perhaps later than many of the private country club’s member-guest tournaments played in March.

The tourney also could expand sales of the hospitality area at the 18th hole grandstands as well, and of course it could expand for ticket sales. Tickets sales are often driven by star power, and without a Fred Couples or a John Daly or even a Bernhard Langer on the leaderboard Sunday, walk-up ticket sales might have been slower on the final day of the tournament. But local sponsors might want to be more involved in 2024 after seeing the 2023 galleries.

No jump, but maybe a plaque?

PGA Tour Champions officials are probably delighted that Toms decided against jumping into Poppie’s Pond after winning. The tour had made it clear to players that it would prefer there by no lake jump, leaving that to the legacy of the LPGA.

What other traditions from the old LPGA event at Mission Hills will and won’t be followed with the senior tour? One tradition could be the placing of a plaque on the wall along the 18th green near Poppie’s Pond.

More than a few people have commented or called or emailed mentioning that Mission Hills has not installed a plaque on that wall for the 2022 Chevron winner, Jennifer Kupcho, the only winner of the LPGA event not on the wall. It seems reasonable that Toms can’t have a plaque until Kupcho does.

Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for The Desert Sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_bohannan. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Desert Sun.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Galleri Classic: For PGA Tour Champions golfers, event felt like bigger tournament