Ohio is the retail and hospitality test market capital of the world. New restaurants often show up here first, and when existing ones want to try out a new menu item, they're often tested first in Ohio. When snack food companies come up with a new flavor of cookie, cracker or potato chip, odds are you'll have to be in Ohio to get that first taste.
This year, Ohio also has become a test market for how to launch a golf tour during a global health crisis.
With the PGA Tour doubleheader of the Workday Charity Open followed by the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in suburban Columbus in the books, focus now shifts northwest to Toledo. That's where the first two LPGA events of 2020 will take place in consecutive weeks.
The Marathon Classic, originally scheduled for July 9-12 at Highland Meadows in Sylvania, had been moved, thanks to the you-know-what, to Aug. 3-9 in what was supposed to be the delayed season opener for an abbreviated LPGA season. Things often change quickly in a test market, however, and the LPGA has since added the makeshift Drive On Championship to its schedule from July 31-Aug. 2 down the road from Highland Meadows at the Inverness Club in the LPGA's new season opener.
The LPGA didn't even ask officials at Inverness, site of next year's Solheim Cup, to host the new event until June 16, giving superintendent John Zimmers and his team just six weeks to prepare.
If any place is up to the task of holding a professional event on such short notice, it is Inverness. The Donald Ross classic is fresh off a 2018 restoration by architect Andrew Green. The U.S. Junior Amateur was held there last year, and the Solheim Cup will be there next year. Zimmers came to Inverness in 2017 after 19 years at Oakmont, where he kept Henry Fownes' sole design in tournament-ready shape every day.
"It was short notice, but the LPGA came to us because they knew with everything going on that we would be a good fit," said Inverness assistant superintendent Ryan Kaczor.
"With the Marathon Classic the next week, this really puts Toledo on display. It's good for the city and for northwest Ohio."
Many LPGA players already are sequestered in a Toledo hotel in an attempt to isolate them from Covid-19.
"I saw where the PGA Tour went back-to-back at Muirfield," Kaczor said. "The LPGA has already been here a while because of the Solheim. Holding a tournament here takes away from the burden of Highland Meadows holding events in back-to-back weeks."
Not everything has been in Inverness's favor.
Zimmers' crew of 30 includes 16 seasonal employees. The team wasn't at full staff because of the virus, until the week before the LPGA called.
"The biggest effect early on was there were so many unknowns. There still are a lot of unknowns," Kaczor said. "No one knew if the golf course would be full, or if it would be generating any revenue. We limped along with a smaller staff, and we spent a lot of time cleaning mowers, tables and other touchpoints, and that has slowed us down, but that's where we are in the world right now."
Since June, the temperature has reached 90 on 23 days since early June.
Zimmers, however, is an old hand at producing stunning championship conditions. Besides last year's U.S. Junior Amateur at Inverness, while at Oakmont he was the host superintendent for the U.S. Open in 2007 and 2016, the 2010 U.S. Women's Open and the U.S. Amateur in 2003.
"John has done this so many times," Kaczor said. "We are already at a high standard here to begin with, so not much will have to change. We're just honing in on some of the details to get things where they need to be.
In fact, Inverness is just coming off an annual member-guest tournament, and Kaczor said they might have to slow the greens a bit for the LPGA.
"There is no better feeling in the world. It's what we live for - the spotlight," he said. "We take pride in everything we do. When you do your best and get a call at the last minute to hold the opening LPGA tournament of the year at a moment's notice, it shows all of our hard work is paying off."