After a week in St. Andrews, Scotland, followed by a week in Ontario, Canada, some touring pros at the Greenbrier�s Old White Course for this week�s Greenbrier Classic may feel they have been transported back to a more elegant time and place.
Jim Justice, the West Virginia-born coal baron, has overseen the completion of the architect Lester George�s four-year restoration of the classic C.B. MacDonald designed Old White course that will host the $6 million PGA Tour event for the first time starting Thursday. He has also breathed new life into the centuries old Grand Dame of American resorts � all in just 14 months.
There are players in the field with architectural accomplishments and interests, including Ernie Els and Brad Faxon, the veteran touring pro who called the work �absolutely fantastic, especially to anyone who understands classic design and what MacDonald was trying to achieve.�
Justice already has made his determination.
�The course is ready,� he said. �I just got through talking to Sergio Garcia, and he said he loved the course, that everything is in great shape. We just keep hearing that, so it�s good. It�s real good.�
Justice is 59, stands 6 feet 7 inches and has compiled a list of varied business achievements in agriculture, tractor dealerships and coal mining that are as imposing as his stature, building a fortune estimated at north of $800 million. One might think his biggest achievement � outside of coaching the local high school girls basketball team to a 766-152 record � might be turning a profit at the Greenbrier within one year of buying it out of bankruptcy from the powerful Marriott International hoteliers.
He actually is prouder of something for which he takes no credit.
�The PGA Tour already told us that the highest charitable giving of any event in its first year in the history of the tour was the Wachovia, which gave $1.6 million,� Justice said.
�We�re going to set a brand new bar on that, and I really believe that we�ll exceed $3 million. So we�ll almost double the all-time record, which is not in any way a tribute to me. There�s just been a lot of people step up and a lot of people throughout West Virginia have a great deal of interest in an event of this magnitude.�
Fourteen months ago this tournament was not even a rumor. But the wheels began to turn after Justice spoke to a fellow West Virginian, Slugger White, who is a PGA Tour official and tournament director, and suggested that he had just the event to replace the departing Buick Open on the schedule.
When Justice wants something to happen, it usually does not take long to materialize. He grew up poor, and learned how to work hard because of his father, who worked his way into an ownership position in mining.
�He would say, �Son, if you can�t get it done in 24 hours you�re gonna have to work nights,� � Justice remembered with a laugh. �And that�s what I do. We work and we work all the time.�
What is he working toward now? Simple. The man who has never taken a vacation because he has too much fun working, said he wanted to have the best tournament on the PGA Tour.
�I�m not going to stop until the PGA Tour comes to me and says, Unquestionably, this is the best event we have all year, with the exception maybe of the majors,� Justice said.
Faxon, who had dinner with Justice on Monday, said, �You know, I don�t doubt he can do it.�
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