The Mackel stroke play city championship, which ceased operation after the 2007 event drew only 57 golfers, will return in 2010 at Lakewood Golf
Club. The board of directors — Mackel founder Dave Lagarde, PGA Tour member Kelly Gibson, Lakewood’s Brad Weaver and Jimmy Headrick, and Paul Buckley — said the tournament will be in late August, probably Aug. 28-29. “We had thought we were spinning our wheels when we stopped it, ” said Lagarde, who directed the tournament’s 15 previous events. “But we have been hearing from a lot of people who kept asking about the tournament, and I didn’t have it out of my system yet.” Asked what happened to the event, which crowned a metro champion and drew as many as 200 golfers when it began, Lagarde said, “Hurricane Katrina. It’s not easy to get those golfers committed to a tournament. “I believe with the cooperation from Lakewood, with Brad Weaver and Jimmy Headrick there, it will be a success. We hope to crawl before we can run, however. We will limit the field to 100 players, and we believe that playing it in late August will get it away from charity tournaments and other events.” The tournament is named after the late Frank Mackel, a local professional highly regarded for his contributions to golf. “The fact that we’ve been able to return the tournament to the city and to do it at one of the places Frank worked is important to us, ” Lagarde said.
The tournament began at City Park, moved to Eastover before Katrina devastated that club, then moved to Belle Terre before taking two years off. Lakewood recently reopened after undergoing an extensive renovation.