LAKE NONA, FLORIDA | If it’s not fun, why do it?

The differences this week at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions are legion. Warming up on the range, tour players might hit balls next to actor Jack Wagner, who, for those of a certain age, will always be Frisco Jones on the soap opera General Hospital. For those who have been to this event in the past, Wagner is known as a golf nut who is the first on the range in the morning and the last to leave the chipping green in the afternoon, a staple of the celebrity circuit who greets the players, media and volunteers at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club like long-lost friends every year.

Next to him is country music star Lee Brice, not quite as serious a player as Wagner, but doing his best to work on his driver while author and podcaster Brian Baumgartner (Kevin from The Office) razzes him like a rope-line heckler.

Then there’s the music. While it wasn’t cranked up on Tuesday, the driving range will sound like a nightclub the rest of the week with a DJ spinning tunes that range from Lizzo to Lynyrd Skynyrd. The thumping won’t stop there. Music will also fill the grandstands beside the 18th green all week.

Three nights this week, there will be concerts by EnVogue, Marin Morris, and Ellie Goulding. Players and their guests are invited to any or all.

Then there is the food at Lake Nona, which is a step above the normal fare, and the accommodations at the Wave Hotel, one of the newer and nicer properties on the south end of Orlando. Throw in the fact that Nona is arguably the best golf course in the Orlando area – there’s a reason the PGA and LPGA Tour players who still live in the city choose it as their home club – and this is one of the best kickoffs in the game, bar none.

It’s also fun. Sure, they want to win the golf tournament - Danielle Kang kickstarted her year with a victory here a year ago, and Jessica Korda returned to the winner’s circle after a long absence with a playoff win against Kang in 2021 – but it’s also a good week to have a good time.

“I love being able to play this week because it gives me a chance, after a layoff, to see where I am with my game, to see what I need to tune up before we start again,” said Paula Reto, who is making her debut at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions after winning last year’s CP Women’s Open.

That’s the general consensus. With a 29-player field with music and celebrity distractions, HGV gives everyone a chance to ease back into competitive golf after a two-month break where a number of them didn’t swing a club.

“No golf,” Moriya Jutanugarn said about how she spent her off season. “I did everything except golf.”

Nasa Hataoka went strawberry picking among other pursuits during the off season. She has also been working on some swing changes that she hopes to fine-tune this week under pressure this week.

“We did some bow hunting,” Ally Ewing said of her time away. “We have a lot of property, so we hunted behind our house, but we also went to South Texas and hunted along the border. I got my first buck with a bow this off-season.”

Reto took a cruise to the Bahamas. “It was my first (cruise), ever,” she said. “I wouldn’t have gone but my sister wanted to go so I went with her and really enjoyed it. I got to travel without getting on a plane, which is perfect for me.”

Then on Tuesday afternoon, Reto got to experience another fun aspect of this week. A little after 1 p.m., tournament director Aaron Stewart (the spitting image of his late father, Payne), mounted a couple of windowpanes atop poles on the driving range and announced the “Break-the-Glass Challenge.” Reto, Marina Alex, and Yuka Saso took on Baumgartner, Brice, and actor Alfonso Ribeiro.

Ribeiro put the celebrities in the lead, but Reto turned out to the be the hero for the LPGA. She went two-for-two on the window front, breaking the glass in regulation and in sudden death. Alex then sealed the deal with another broken pane for the professionals.

“That was a lot of fun,” Reto said afterward as she settled into the dining room over arugula and blue-cheese salad and a bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup. “I’ve never done that. I can’t believe I was nervous. But it was really fun.”

Of course it was. That’s what the week is all about.

Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions A Fun Respite For Players And Fans Alike

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