Wayne Gretzky and the Nationwide tour are coming to town for at least the next three years.

The Nationwide Tour and Ford of Canada announced last week that the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic will be played next June 23 to 29 at the Raven at Lora Bay and Georgian Bay Club golf courses. The tournament will pair a Nationwide Tour pro golf tournament with a celebrity pro/am competition.

The event will raise funds for Gretzky's charitable foundation, and organizers have promised some of the money will go to local charities, Lora Bay's Jim Wilkinson said.

Lora Bay was the site of the TELUS World Skins Game, last June, featuring five of the biggest names on golf's PGA Tour.

The Gretzky tournament will be somewhat different, in that it's spanning six days instead of two, and will include a long list of celebrities.

"It's an event that will induce people to come and see what's west of Collingwood," Wilkinson said. "We have a great community and this is a chance to showcase it."

Gretzky's involvement, Wilkinson added, means the event will have a broader appeal, reaching beyond the golf community.

While the direct impacts should be significant, Wilkinson added, the real benefits will be seen in the future.

"We're looking at the longer term," he said. "Our thrust in this event, as it was with the Skins Game last summer, is to get people to visit the area. We want to educate people about what's available here."

Part of the effort is to ensure that visitors are encouraged to come back. When they do, there's a payoff for local businesses as well as the golf courses, he said.

The Nationwide Tour is astep down from the PGA loop. Most of the players are young professionals hoping to the future stars on the PGA Tour. Some are pros who've spent some time in the big league and are trying to regain their qualification.

No celebrity names as yet have been announced.

The tournament is really two competitions in one.

The celebrities and amateurs will each be paired with one of 160 Nationwide Tour professionals for the first two days of competition, Thursday, June 26

Ten pro/amateur teams will compete on Saturday, June 28 and Sunday, June 29 for the Pro-Celebrity/Amateur title at The Georgian Bay Club.

Meanwhile, the 160 professionals will vie for one of the Tour's largest purses, $800,099 over 72 holes of stroke-play competition. All four rounds will be televised by the Golf Channel.