MISSION — Wildhorse Golf Course expects to draw more than 2,000 people to the Pendleton area at the end of August for a weeklong golf tournament that culminates with the first Ladies Professional Golf Association qualifying tournament held in Oregon.

The Wildhorse Ladies Classic, an Epson Tour event, will be Sept. 2-4 at Wildhorse Golf Course. According to Gary George, CEO of Wildhorse Resort & Casino, the golf course will host a stop on the tour for two years with the option for a third. “This is the inaugural event, so we’re pretty excited about it,” he said.

Following the attempted robbery turned shootout on Aug. 17, the Umatilla Tribal Police Department informed Wildhorse there is no on-going threat to the resort, casino or community. “To our knowledge, there are no specific threats directed toward the Epson Tour or specific players, but WRC Security will be prepared to deal with any situation,” George said.

He said there was already an Epson Tour Security Preparedness plan in place for the tournament to mitigate any potential threats. Wildhorse’s security, the tribal police and emergency medical services will be onsite for the entire week of the tournament

Driving the economy and international media exposure

There are 132 contestants competing in the Epson Tour during the stop in Umatilla County.

Each contestant is supported by an entourage of three to five individuals, which means the tournament will bring upward of 600 people to the Pendleton area just with players, staff support and family members.

George also believes locals will attend, and people from the surrounding area will make the day trip or weekend trip to enjoy the tournament.

The economic boost will not be limited to Wildhorse Resort & Casino, but will spill over to local business, George said. Tournament organizers put together a fact sheet for players listing hotels, restaurants and other stores.

“We think the economic benefits from it will be reaped by and enjoyed by the local economy,” George said of the tournament. “Our hotel doesn’t have enough rooms for everyone, so they are going to have to stay at local hotels. They are going to have to eat somewhere. They are going to have to get their gas and other products that they need for the tournament. So we think that it’s going to have a huge economic impact.”

The tournament will also bring national and international media exposure to Pendleton. The tour is already generating attention from news outlets in Portland, Boise and Washington’s Tri-Cities, according to George. The professionals that make up the Epson Tour represent around 32 different countries, which also means there will be international coverage.

“It won’t be on the scale of an official LPGA event, but it’s the next best thing to it,” he said.

Growing the game of golf

Wildhorse is hosting two youth golf clinics as part of the tournament events. The first is being held at Birch Creek Golf Course on Aug. 29 and is open to the general public.

Members of the Epson Tour and Nike are helping run the camp.

The following day there will be a Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation youth clinic at Wildhorse Golf Course, which is sponsored by N7 — the Native American division of Nike. The clinic will be hosted by Gabby Lemieux — a member of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe of Duck Valley Indian Reservation and an N7 ambassador. She helped Vallivue High School in Caldwell, Idaho, win a state title in 2014 and played golf at the collegiate level for Texas Tech University, where she earned Big 12 Conference Player of the Year honors in 2016 and the No. 1-ranking in the country.

Following the youth clinics early in the week, there will be Pro-Am tournaments on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1.

“We brought (the Epson Tour) here with the idea that these are younger professionals, young ladies, who are aspiring to move onto something greater, to become a member of the LGPA. We hope that people can see that. I know that when you play with one of the professionals, you’re just in awe and inspired by what they’ve been able to accomplish,” George said. “We hope that some of those traits and qualities are observed by our youth from the region.”

Another goal of the tournament is to provide more exposure to the world of golf to young women. George said that a lot of the time women’s sports do not get the level of recognition they deserve, but that has slowly been changing. There has been a rising interest in women’s sports and recognition of female athletes.

“Golf can be played by both men and women, and we want to grow the game of golf,” George said. “To grow the game of golf is to have more exposure to golf and what you could do with golf as a young lady.”

Hub of entertainment

Wildhorse Resort & Casino hosts a number of events from concerts to comedy shows throughout the year.

According to George, they aim to bring in a diverse group of performers to cater to a wide variety of audiences from Pendleton and the surrounding area.

“We at Wildhorse like to think that we’re the hub of entertainment around here,” he said.

Whether Wildhorse will host other other professional sporting events and tournaments of similar standing depends on the price point. George said that the Epson Tour — which costs $200,000 to host — was a price Wildhorse could afford. The resort and casino is partnering with 47 sponsors at both the local and national level to help offset the cost, George said, adding sponsors were also how Wildhorse was able to keep the cost of attendance low — with a day pass costing $5 and a week pass $20.

“There’s a lot of possibilities out there, so I don’t want to discount any of them. We bring in a lot of events now, and especially bringing in the Epson Tour helps bring us to another level,” he said. “So now, we hope we might become a host site for USGA national events, like the amateur women’s and amateur junior boys and girls.”

There are plans to build a new hotel tower — the current building was built in 1996 — which would add 214 rooms and a larger multi-purpose event space. George said WRC would like to build the event space on hydraulic risers, which would allow for the area to be configured in different ways for each event.

The possibilities are endless — the room could be flat for a conference, raised into stadium seating for boxing or tiered for a play. He believes an event space of this caliber would help to differentiate Wildhorse as a venue.

“It will be an exciting venue in Eastern Oregon,” he said.

The Wildhorse Ladies Classic, an Epson Tour event, is set for Sept. 2-4, 2022. Find full details — tickets, clinics and volunteer opportunities — at www.wildhorseresort.com/2022-epson-tour-page.