NC State to Host 2009 Jimmy V Golf Classic
The 2009 Jimmy V Celebrity Golf Classic for Cancer Research, the premier fundraising event bears the name of late Wolfpack basketball coach Jim Valvano, is not only returning to its roots in the Triangle, it is coming home to NC State.
Nick Valvano, chief executive officer of the Cary-based V Foundation for Cancer Research, announced Wednesday at the new Raleigh Convention Center that the 16th annual Classic will be played at the soon-to-be-open Lonnie Poole Golf Course on NC State’s Centennial Campus.
The Arnold Palmer-designed course is slated to open next spring, in plenty of time to host the Aug. 12-16 extravaganza.
The Jimmy V Classic, played on three courses in Pinehurst the last two years and at the three courses at Cary’s Prestonwood Country Club its first 13 years, will revamp its format next year to include a broader segment of the community, instead of focusing solely on golf, Valvano said. It will also make liberal use of Raleigh’s newly opened $221 million, 500,000 square-foot convention center and the adjacent Marriott hotel, to host the annual black-tie gala, along with a Saturday morning symposium on cancer research and a V Wine and Spirits Celebration.
“Sometimes you don’t realize what you have until you don’t have it,” Valvano said. “We were in Pinehurst two years, and God, it is a great place. But it doesn’t have the people we had supporting us here in this community. We had some volunteers come down and help, but we didn’t have the lemonade kids who every year would bring their money to our office in little bags.
“We missed the sense of community. We missed our home.”
For NC State Chancellor James Oblinger, bringing the Jimmy V Celebrity Classic to the campus where the coach ignited so much energy during his 10 years as head coach helps heal some of the wounds that were created when Jim Valvano, the school’s basketball coach and athletics director, was let go in 1990. The coach won two ACC Tournament titles, one ACC regular-season championship and the memorable 1983 NCAA Championship while at NC State.
“Coach Valvano’s time here is part of our history,” Oblinger said. “There has been an absence. We just celebrated the 25th anniversary of that remarkable championship. And [in April] we just announced a research partnership between the university and the V Foundation that has invested time and money across the spectrum of faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students.
“And when you think of the golf classic, what is more appropriate than having its home at NC State.”
The four-day event – which still includes two rounds of golf at Pinehurst for premium participants – includes Saturday and Sunday rounds of golf at the par-71, 7,210-yard Lonnie Poole Golf Course.
The V Foundation was created by Jim Valvano and ESPN shortly before the coach died of bone cancer in 1993. Since then, it has raised more than $80 million for cancer research and is one of the few charities in the country that returns all donations to fund research projects.
