In the seventh and final year of the Provo era for the professional golf tournament then called the Nike Utah Classic, organizers formulated a clever plan to avoid a traditional Sunday finish in the Utah County market. They started the 54-hole event on Thursday and ended on Saturday, the only trouble being that BYU’s high-profile 1996 football game at Washington was televised in the middle of the final round and hardly anyone came to Riverside Country Club.
At one point during the event's 16-year tenure at Willow Creek CC in Sandy, the staff so eagerly wanted to create a good impression for Golf Channel viewers that an 18th-green attendant waved a sign, instructing spectators to cheer loudly as putts rolled toward the hole.