So we've spent a week lamenting the likely end of indoor soccer and auto racing in the Milwaukee area.

This week could easily mark the swan song for the professional golf tournament that has found a home in Milwaukee since 1968. That's a 41-year history. A long, long time.

But the tournament is threatened, and likely to end. Steve Stricker and Jerry Kelly, two Wisconsin pros, have a mysterious plan to save the tournament. But until I see something concrete, it could be so much whistling in the wind, like many plans to save this tournament have been in the past.

There are so many reasons for the expected death that they are almost impossible to count.

Chief among them is the continued erosion of the quality of the field. I've been to every one of those 41 tournaments and have witnessed the descent into what has become a field of never-will-bes, also-rans and beyond-their-prime players.

This tournament has had names like Trevino, Norman, Nicklaus, Woods and Snead in the field. Big, big names that drew fans. This year, none of the top 70 players in the world are coming to Milwaukee. The highest ranked player is No. 72 and his name is Na.

There are no draws in this field. Try as they might, the organizers of the tournament can't sell a pig in a poke. You can put sunglasses on this pig, but it's still a pig.

Now, don't get me wrong here. All of the guys at the tournament can play. They are the cream of the crop in the world of professional golf, but only the most hardcore golf fan has ever heard of many of these players. Look at the list below and see how many names you can recognize.

A big problem, and it clearly relates to the date, is the fact that the tournament has been bedeviled by the British Open. The best players in the world go there. I was covering the tournament when Lee Trevino was in a playoff. After several playoff holes, walking down a fairway. I was next to Trevino when he told an official to get his car ready because he was leaving to catch his plane to the British Open. He'd given up even before the playoff was even over.

Money also is a problem. The growth of purses on the PGA tour has been incredible, and the Milwaukee tournament hasn't been able to keep up. Even with the late Jane Pettit underwriting much of the cost of the tournament, the purse has always been one of the smallest on tour. This year, only two tournaments have smaller purses, and both of them go up against World Golf Championship events.

Milwaukee has been unable to get a big sponsor for its event. They've pieced together packages of sponsorships to get the tournament underway, but nobody has stepped up and committed the big dollars needed to run a big tournament. Ticket sales are kind of important to the tournament, but the big dough has to come from sponsors. There is not a tournament on the tour that lives on ticket sales.

I'm not sure I could have found a way to cure some of these ills, short of going toe-to-toe with the PGA Tour and demanding better dates, especially given the lengthy history of the tournament. Instead, the organizers of this event always seemed grateful for the scraps of the PGA Tour banquet.

Having said all that, this is an event with a significant history. Four black golfers have won this event, and I doubt that any other tour event can say that. Greg Norman won this tournament. The tournament has donated lots of money to local charities. It is one of the very few tournaments that is played on a public course. You and I can play the same place that the pros play, and that's a very rare thing. Brown Deer is a wonderful course, run by a wonderful pro, Scott Evans. He has overseen the creation of one of the great municipal courses in the country. The course is made for low scoring by the pros, and that always leads to excitement.

There are chances for this tournament to continue.

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Posted by terrabrown on July 15, 2009 at 2:19 p.m. (report)

The GMO/US Bank Open or whatever its called is ridiculously far down the list of sports events that Milwaukeeans actually care about that only an insignificant number of people would even notice if it was gone. So a few suit wearing corporate monkeys will now have to rely on Miller Park and Bradley Center luxury boxes to close business deals... boo freakin' hoo.

Posted by more_cowbell on July 14, 2009 at 5:11 p.m. (report)

The PGA decided to kill this event years ago by scheduling it near the British Open. In years past the event was not scheduled near a major tournament, so big name players could attend. Then the PGA moved the event to the week before the British Open. Most top pros skip the events that bookend majors but factor in the overseas travel and the nails were being driven in coffin. Then the PGA moved the event to the same week as the British assuring that none of the top players would attend. As the Dali Lama once said Gunga Galunga