What's in a Name? (Reprise)

(This is a post from September 15, 2005. I reworked the ending a little after I talked to a couple of Green Coaters this week end.)

I was surprised by one of the comments made by Jim Melvin in the article entitled "Melvin:Golf Tourney in Peril" by Jim Schlosser in the Saturday, September 10, 2005 issue of the News & Record.

In that article Melvin suggested that one of the improvements that should be made to the event is to change the name of the tournament to reflect the entire region. Melvin said "He foresees an eventual change to "Carolina Chrysler Classic".

This seems to differ from what other local leaders, including Mayor Holliday, have been saying for years. The Jaycees have been encouraged to fight to keep the name "Greensboro" in the title of the event. (Greater Greensboro Open, Kmart Greater Greensboro Open, Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic and Chrysler Classic of Greensboro.) The Nike event was even called the Nike Greensboro Open.

Greensboro has always taken pride in the fact that it is one of the few remaining cities to have its name in the title of the event it host. The Greensboro Jaycee's sister chapter the Hartford Jaycees recently left the name Hartford out of its title, the Greater Hartford Open, to become the Buick Open.

Which brings us to the tournament's name changes over the years. People have really held on to the GGO, the Greater Greensboro Open, title. Even though it has not officially been know as that for over ten years.(Happy 11th anniversary Chrysler.)I

t's not just old timers and Green Coaters that won't let go, its also the local media. The print media has been the worst about letting go. Weekly papers in this area still refer to the tournament as the GGO. They usually make some sort of joke about how they know it's called something else, but they want to call it the GGO.

The 2006 tournament will be the last one for Chrysler as its title sponsor and we have been assured several times in the local media that Mark Brazil and the members of the newly formed foundation are hard at work finding a replacement for our outgoing friends.

With this in mind, I attended Kevin von der Lippe's wedding over the weekend and got into a couple of short conversations with Barbara Esquibel and Ann Pinto. Both had a lot to say about the current state of things, none of which I will share here, but the one comment that Ann made that I will share is that she thought the tournament should be renamed the Greater Greensboro Open until a new title sponsor could be found.

Now, I have said the very same thing on this blog once or twice, but it seemed much more meaningful when Ann said it. So, let's do it. Let's have one more Greater Greensboro Open before the new sponsors come and tack their name to everything.