Dick’s Sporting Goods Open back to normal

After a dark year followed by a decidedly modified version last summer, the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open are in celebration mode for their return to supposed normalcy this week at the En-Joie golf course.

The stars of the Over-50s group line up in good fashion to compete for a $2.1 million prize pool on a city course that hosts PGA Tour-sanctioned under-51 golf^St Time.

The competition is scheduled to start on Friday morning, with the end of the game – if all goes according to plan – around 5:30am on Sunday.

Aside from the use of digital tickets, which are becoming increasingly popular in the sports and entertainment industries, there will be no holdovers from last year’s ticketing model. For 2021, when capacity was capped at 5,000 per day in deference to ongoing COVID precautions — including Friday’s Old Dominion concert — there were no exceptions to the $500 all-inclusive package for that actual tournament.

A particular setting for Dick’s Open, but a far better alternative to 2020 when the pandemic was the cause of Broome County’s most prominent sporting/social event being scrubbed.

“There are some things that we learned last year that we can bring forward this year and we’ll see how they go and from there we’ll adapt. Just like every other year, we aim to get better and better every year,” said Tournament Director John Karedes. “I think our fans, who couldn’t be there last year and were last here over 1,000 days ago in 2019, I really think they’re going to have a great time.”