DUBLIN, Ohio — The Memorial Tournament is here and is expected to bring in tens of thousands of people into central Ohio.
A spokesperson for the Memorial estimates the tournament will generate about $35 million.
In Upper Arlington, it’s the first year of business for the Fairway Columbus, an indoor golf experience with state-of-the-art simulators. Those simulators let people play the same course the pros are playing in Dublin.
Nick Bartley, the general manager of Fairway Columbus, said this is an exciting week.
“Fans coming in, the energy in the city,” he said. “Top golfers here. I remember when Tiger Woods came to town. It was a mad rush. Everyone wanted to see and feel that energy with Tiger out there winning.”
While it’s the business’ first Memorial, Bartley said they’ve got plenty planned for the week.
“Thursday night, we have a live event with Chatterbox spots from Cincinnati. They're in for the tournament. We're going to play Muirfield. We’ve got some corporate events coming into town, so it's good.”
Dream Seats, a Columbus ticket broker, deals a lot with Memorial tickets. Jamie Kaufman, the president of Dream Seats, said it’s been a busy couple months.
“Whether you’re a golf fan or not, I mean it doesn’t really matter. It’s a social event. That’s what it really is and people want to be there,” he said.
Kaufman said the Memorial staff keep attendance numbers a closely guarded secret, but he always estimates between 40-50,000 people.
He said the Memorial only sells tickets for the full week, but he and other services are able to sell day-passes.
“Now that they’re showing sold out, it’s better for us. It sends people to the secondary market which is us. We can sell them a whole week if they want of course, but individual days are usually what people want,” he said.
He said the Memorial being a week later than usual hasn’t affected business much at all. People are still buying tickets and still going.
Bartley said the later date might actually be better.
“We’re two weeks away from the US Open so this is the gear up to the US Open before they hit Pinehurst No. 2, so it’s a good test to it,” said Bartley.