Sep 12, 2006 By Mike Ciarochi 3 min read

FARMINGTON – “By the fourth one, you ought to be better at it.” With those words, Jeff Nobers pledged to make the last 84 Lumber Classic the best of the lot.

If you’ve ventured up the mountain for any of the first three events, you’ll know that’s saying something, especially in light of the fact that this will be the tournament’s swan song.

In April, 84 Lumber Company decided to withdraw its title sponsorship of the tournament, even though the PGA Tour had agreed to let the event move to June beginning in 2007. But this was a business decision, one that came entirely from the company’s new business plan.

From that point forward, however, Nobers, who serves as media director of the event and is vice president of Corporate Communications for the lumber company, noted that his bosses, Joe Hardy and Maggie Hardy Magerko, have stressed the importance of making this a better event than its predecessors.

“Joe and Maggie made it very clear to all of us that they expect every bit the effort that we put into the previous events,” Nobers said. “This has to be the best we’ve ever done.”

It would have been easy to back things off a little, just do what’s necessary to get this tournament completed before moving on to the next project. But neither Hardy nor his daughter have ever looked for what might be an easier way, especially anything relating to this tournament.

“If anything, we’ve probably been more intense about it this time,” Nobers said. “We want it to go off, not as well, but better than it was last year or the year before that.”

Preparations that began 11 months ago are about to come to fruition. Monday’s first day featured a Pro-Am event and the pro playing in the group going off Tee 1A was Michelle Wie, the 16-year-old who will try again to make the cut in a PGA Tour event this weekend.

That was just one of the special tweaks Nobers and his staff managed to pull together.

“Since we’ve done this before, we’re to the point now where we can re-examine every little thing, then we can double-check it,” Nobers said. “The Tour officials seem to be very impressed that we are taking the approach we are taking, that we want this to be the best, even if it is the last.”

While signs are still being posted and posts are still being painted, Nobers is certain everything will be in place come Thursday morning’s first round. “Actually, we’ll have everything in place for Wednesday’s Pro-Am.”

The first event drew 50,000 spectators in 2003 before the 2004 tournament drew 160,000. Last year, the 84 Lumber Classic drew 200,000 fans to the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa, so, naturally, Nobers expects this grand finale to draw more.

“We always look for a 10 to 15 percent increase, so we’d like to draw 225,000,” he said.

No one, including Nobers, has had time to get nostalgic about this tournament or its past. When pressed, though, Nobers admitted, “I’ll miss this week, that’s for sure. It’s a lot of fun, you see a lot of wonderful people and this is very satisfying.”

“A lot of tears will be shed on Sunday,” Nobers added. “But now we’re too busy to think about it.”