WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS —  As a child, Jim Justice could only dream of visiting The Greenbrier. Now he owns it.

How did it happen? Work, and lots of it.

No one will deserve a vacation more that Justice after the Greenbrier Classic ends a week from today. Don’t bet on it happening.

The 59-year-old Justice, the owner of The Greenbrier, and creator of the inaugural Greenbrier Classic, is proud to say he’s never had a vacation in his life. He’s been too busy trying to make an impact with his life.

“You work at it seven days a week, you sure try to make it to church, but you work at it seven days a week,” Justice said. “You have a real passion for what you do, and lo and behold, you end up buying the Greenbrier.

“You walk around pinching yourself thinking, ‘Jimimy, you mean I really own this place’.”

Justice purchased The Greenbrier in May of 2009. He had a plan, and a PGA TOUR golf tournament was part of that plan.

“The whole business strategy is to inject energy back into this ‘grand old lady’ and get it operational and functioning again,” said Justice, of The Greenbrier, a resort area that has been in some form of existence since 1778. “That was the whole idea around the casino, the Jerry West restaurant, the Italian restaurant, and the golf tournament.

“All that is just a devious plan to basically bring the ‘grand old lady’ back to life. I knew we had to have a golf tournament and I wouldn’t back away.”

The Greenbrier Classic will begin with a trio of practice rounds starting Monday, with the four-day tournament starting on Thursday and running through Sunday.

More than 2,200 volunteers will be ready to greet what Justice thinks could be more than 150,000 fans over the six days.

“I really honestly believe that this will be the best PGA TOUR event that the PGA TOUR has with the exception of the majors this year,” Justice said. “I think it will be just that good.”

The field, which won’t include fan favorites Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson, still has 10 major champions, including multi-titliests John Daly and Lee Janzen. Others competing for the $6 million purse, including $1,080,000 for the winner, are Jim Furyk, Justin Leonard and Davis Love III.

Justice thinks all of them will succumb to the ‘wow’ factor that first-time visitors usually express when first arriving at The Greenbrier, and that’s just the course itself.

“I think they will love it, I think they will absolutely love it,” Justice said. “It’s 7,031 yards now, we have lengthened some of the holes, but the beauty of the course is unreal, and it is in terrific condition.

“The Greenbrier has always been known for its flowers and we have gone through planting of probably a million and half dollars worth of flowers all around the grounds, and a lot on the golf course.

“I think what will undoubtedly be the most appealing to the players is the old style history of the course.”

Too often in today’s golf world, courses are built for the big hitters. The Greenbrier will force golfers to use something other than a driver, and the 18th hole is actually a picturesque and challenging par 3 that will require hitting over water to a green flanked by sand bunkers.

“So many courses today are just lean back and just hit as far as you can hit it,” said Justice, who played golf at Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley with Slugger White, who is a top rules official for the PGA. “This course will be a shotmaker’s course and it will have all the old time history and architecture and I think they will love it...

“Slugger is going all around the course like crazy, he has seen many, many golf courses and he loves it.”

 The fact that The Greenbrier Classic found a spot on the PGA Tour schedule is part determination and part good timing.

“In our initial contact with the PGA TOUR, they said what about a Champions event, what about a ladies event or what about a fall series event, but I said, ‘Nope, that is not going to work’,” Justice said. “The only thing that is going to happen here is the top tier because that is the only thing the Greenbrier really understands.

“The Greenbrier needs to be just that, the top tier. The long and short of it is, we kept plowing with one course in mind and got it done.”

Questions arose about placing a tournament in an area with little in terms of accommodations and restaurants, but that didn’t stop Justice, who kept pushing for a PGA event.

The Greenbrier has hosted national golf events in the past, including the Ryder Cup in 1979, and the 1994 Solheim Cup.

“It didn’t take long, it took a month, but I just wouldn’t turn it loose,” said Justice, who said all 700 rooms are booked at The Greenbrier, and fans will be staying as far away as Roanoke, Beckley and Charleston. “The Greenbrier sells itself in a lot of different ways, but the fact coming to West Virginia, or coming to an area that is not just flush with hotels rooms and can that all happen.

“What we continued to flaunt was the history of the course and the warmness and how well it would be received here and how well it would be received from a hospitality standpoint.”

When the Buick Open disappeared off the schedule after last season, there was suddenly an empty spot in the schedule, a rarity on the PGA TOUR. Finally, Justice had prevailed.

“My whole play from a business standpoint with the PGA is somebody has got to be weak-kneed, somebody is going to fall out of the mix with this economy,” said Justice, who was able to secure a six-year agreement with the PGA. “I kind of stepped up to the plate, ‘we want the event’, and lo and behold, the Buick kind of dropped and we were able to get their spot.

“That almost never happens so we were able to seize the moment and get it done.”

While The Greenbrier have a six-year commitment from the PGA, Justice is thinking even bigger than being the top ‘non-major’ event on the tour. He added that the date might not always stay at the end of the July.  

“I like the date, the date is great, but it is very possible that it could change and it is very possible that as some point and time we could end up with one of the majors here, the U.S. Open or something like that, you never know, or the President’s Cup or another Ryder Cup,” Justice said. “We’re not just going to just lay down and say this is it, this is the highest point on the mountain you can go, we will work to go a little higher.”

It’s not just the golf that has Justice estimating that The Greenbrier Classic will raise $25.5 million from the event.

Concerts featuring Reba McEntire, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley will be held this week, and Smoky Robinson will come in Tuesday to perform when the drawing is held to determine the pairings for Wednesday’s pro-am.

Justice added that tickets are still on sale for the concerts, and the badge enables fans to also attend the tournament.

“We’re going to be at about $25.5 million, and that all comes from all the stuff that is going on, attendance at the concerts, the hospitality that everybody has stepped up to the plate and taken, the title sponsorship being us, and just all the different levels that people have said they want in,” said Justice, who added that even major tournaments bring in less, usually between $13-18 million. “That is why I believe it is going to be such an incredible event because of the amount of people that want to be involved and want to come.

“We have got 2,200 volunteers, it is really going to be something.”

In addition, Justice is most proud that The Greenbrier Classic will shatter the previous record on the PGA TOUR for charitable giving from a tour event. Justice hopes most of the money raised will benefit in-state needs.

“I am proud to report on a first year event — the highest charitable giving in the history of the PGA TOUR is $1.6 million — and that was the first year of the Wachovia,” Justice said. “This year in our inaugural event we will exceed $3 million in charitable giving.

“Not only are we going to break the record, we are going to double it, and that surely makes you feel awfully good.”

Yes, money isn’t his greatest motivation, not even close.

“There is no other Greenbrier, our competition is ourselves,” Justice said. “That is my goal, my goal is to make The Greenbrier the best high-end destination place in the world, period.

“Do I do that so I can build a pile of gold for myself? Absolutely not, I have no ambition of doing that at all.”

All Justice wants to do is showcase The Greenbrier, and the state he loves so much.

“When that blimp floats over and 200 countries see the glamour and all the great characteristics of West Virginia, it is our chance to really show off how good we really are, and that is all I want,” Justice said. “At the end of the day I am not interested in that pile of gold.

“I want The Greenbrier to be successful and be a real treasure for all West Virginians and a national treasure as well. At the end of the day, I want to do good things for people and community because I have really been blessed to do what I have done and I want to just keep on trying to do good stuff.”

Justice is insistent on reviving The Greenbrier, and retrieving its reputation as the ‘best of the best’ as it once was considered before being tarnished somewhat in recent years. At the same time, he wants to put West Virginia on the map for something other than bad jokes.

“I want us to quit being 50th and 48th in too many things, really we are too good for that,” Justice said. “We are just plain too good for that, when you cut through all the stuff with me, that is it.

“That is why I bought the Greenbrier, that is why I have got a golf tournament here, I want us to be on top of the leaderboard instead of the brunt of a lot of bad jokes.

“I am going to make my footprint to try and help make it happen...

“All the positiveness about this golf tournament will surely be beneficial to The Greenbrier and to the area, but it ought to be just a fabulous economic boost for our whole state.”

Justice is hoping “thinking outside the box” will help sustain The Greenbrier and put a positive spotlight on the state he loves so much.

“The Greenbrier has got to be profitable to sustain longevity, period, it has got to be profitable,” Justice said. “That is the real barometer of running a business and I am not going to have it not be profitable.

“At the same time, really and truly, I want this tournament, I want the Greenbrier, I want all of this for one reason and that is to show off just how good West Virginia really is.

“That is the only reason I really want this, I love West Virginia more than good sense and I think so many times we get the short end of the stick and I think this is our opportunity to show just how good and warm and loving and just how really fabulous West Virginia really is.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

 at bwoodson@bdtonline.com