Welcome to the week when more people probably decide to move to San Diego than any other week of the year.
It’s the week of the annual PGA golf tournament at Torrey Pines. For four straight days, TV will be showing viewers around the country a golf course that is located at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, at one of the most beautiful spots in the world. And unlike some years during the tournament, no rain is in the forecast.
And many, if not most, of those millions of TV viewers who will be seeing shots of the Torrey Pines cliffs and the curving coastline and all the other scenic views of San Diego this week….live in areas where sub-freezing temperatures and snow are the normal weather during late January.
Longtime San Diego sportscaster Ted Leitner once said the annual golf tournament at Torrey Pines usually leads to a population explosion as all those TV viewers huddled in front of a fireplace with a hot chocolate or a hot toddy in their cold hands drool over the views and the weather in San Diego.
And with Tiger Woods returning to the PGA tour and playing at Torrey Pines this year, even more TV viewers in the cold and snowy parts of the country will be watching.
So there’s a good chance many of them will decide to vacation in San Diego with some finally deciding it’s time to move to San Diego. Maybe you were one of them if you moved here from back there. You may even get a call Monday morning from some friends to let you now they’re coming out.
So this one week is a big one when it comes to tourism and the resulting boost to our local economy. When it comes to showing off where we live, it’s time to tee it up.