Less than a two weeks after the United States Golf Association announced Chambers Bay as the site for its 2015 U.S. Open tournament, Tacoma has landed a big fish as a result.
Par 5 Events, a national golf event planner based in Cheney, Spokane County, has booked the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center for a four-day golf trade show in July.
The show will generate 1,800 room nights in South Sound hotels, making it one of the top two convention center events booked in Tacoma this year.
The trade show - formally called The AAC 19th Hole Premier Golf Show - will occur July 24-27 in conjunction with the 2008 American Amateur Championship, a golf tournament that will play its seeding rounds at several Western Washington courses before finishing at Chambers Bay.
"I thought someone was pulling a joke on me when I first heard about it," David Bobo, general manager of the convention center, said Tuesday. "This is $70,000 of food and beverage. In July."
Summer months tend to be slow for convention business.
Expect more golf-related events and shows to flood the market, said Mike Combs, the city's director of public assembly facilities.
"We're already feeling the (positive) effects," Combs said. "That's going to do nothing but increase as word gets out" about the U.S. Open coming to Chambers Bay.
Exhibitors for the trade show include golf gear and apparel retailers, golf resorts and travel brokers from across the country.
You can buy tickets at Ticketmaster. For more infor-mation, go to the event's official Web site at www. golfthenorthwest.com.
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Dan Voelpel: 253-597-8785
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