The younger Thompson said Shoal Creek officials have talked to all the major golf organizations — PGA, LPGA, Champions, PGA of America and the USGA — about hosting tournaments since then and got “pretty close” to landing the PGA’s Tour Championship in 2002.

They also had discussions about the Champions Tour event long hosted at nearby Greystone before moving two years ago to Ross Bridge in Hoover. The upcoming Junior Amateur is a chance to restore the image.

“We think it’s important to show the 2008 version of Shoal Creek,” Thompson said. “A lot of people are fixated on the 1990 version and what was said about it, which we said was corrected and nobody believed us.”

The Junior Amateur — with past competitors like Tiger Woods and David Duval — is a start, if not a huge fan draw because much of it consists of match play and none of the participants are big names yet.

Wayne Gillis, a Shoal Creek member since 1978, believes it will still have a nice turnout. And 1990? He figures that’s old news.

“I think our community is over the other. That’s history,” Gillis said. “We’re looking to the future. We’ve got 42 sponsors that came on board with us within two weeks once we announced that we were going to do this.

“It’s really a dead issue now. That’s 18 years ago. We’re proud of what we’ve got here. We wish it hadn’t happened. It did.”

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