Greenwood’s Viking Range Corporation now sponsors the PGA Golf Tournament at Madison’s Annandale Country Club.

This is the second year of Viking’s sponsorship, following several years during which Southern Farm Bureau was the title sponsor. Southern Farm Bureau had followed on the heels of Deposit Guaranty Bank, which had taken up sponsorship in 1986.

The event had been originally known as the Magnolia Classic following its inception in 1968. The tournament was originally played at the Hattiesburg Country Club before moving to Annandale after the 1993 event.

Among the better known winners of the tournament are Craig Stadler, winner in Hattiesburg in 1978, the late Payne Stewart who was the 1982 winner.

Also there were Fred Funk, who won in 1998 and 2004, and former Mississippian Heath Slocum, who won the 2005 event. Last year’s winner, Chad Campbell, was unable to defend his title this year because he was playing on the United States team in the Ryder Cup matches

Unfortunately, for the Saturday and Sunday gate, Greenwood’s Jim Gallagher Jr. missed the cut by a single shot and won’t be around as a player for the final two rounds.

For the first time in several years, the Monday Pro-Am did not have a Natchez player. The pairings for Wednesday’s Pro-Am showed Natchez Sen. Bob Dearing playing with a group from the Mississippi Economic Development Authority. Their pro was David Duval.

On Tuesday a new event was added for this year. It was a Pro-Junior tournament. Though no Natchez youth were entered, Peyton Spring, from Madison, played on the winning team, with pro Heath Slocum. Peyton is the son of Greg and Vicky Spring, who were both raised in Natchez

The marriage of Viking Range and this tournament has been a very successful match. Along with the efforts of Tournament Director Randy Watkins, the cooking demonstrations put on by Viking have drawn great crowds.

Among the chefs providing the cooking demonstrations were Riki Senn, Cat Cora, Greg Fieri, John Besh, Louis Bruno, and the Sunday climax, Robert St. John from Hattiesburg. Thursday was Ladies- in-free day, Saturday the same for kids (with a golf seminar) and there were many other attractions.

Wednesday, while watching the beginning of the Pro-am, I met Gov. Haley Barbour. The governor was very pleasant, since I did not want to interview him, and remarked that we both probably had many of the same friends and enemies in Natchez.

As many people who were greeting the governor, I was surprised that he was able to even hit that first drive, even though it really was a duck hook.

I want to especially thank Cary New, Viking’s communications manager, who also served as media director for the tournament. Though I am not a golf writer, she was kind enough to provide me with a media pass, and I am grateful for that.

I did not get to watch much college football Saturday, even though I did see the LSU win over Auburn and saw some of Georgia’s win over Arizona State. Both looked mighty good. I did not see much of anything else, but what I saw reinforces my long-held opinion that Pacific 10 Conference officiating is the weakest in the country.

And, That’s Official.

Al Graning writes a weekly column for The Democrat.