By Bill Kwon
Boy, did the Sony Open luck out on two fronts. First, Sergio Garcia became its star attraction after winning the Mercedes Championships last week at Kapalua, thereby making golf fans forget about asking, "Where's Tiger?"
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| Dean Wilson of Kane'ohe, practicing with Michelle Wie at the Waialae Country Club, had to go to a playoff in qualifying to earn a spot in the Sony Open in Hawai'i.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
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Secondly, because Sony officials were saved from being asked a more embarrassing question by all close followers of local golf: why wasn't Dean Wilson, Hawai'i's best professional golfer in 2001, given a sponsor's exemption?
Fortunately, the 32-year-old Kane'ohe native is playing in the Sony Open starting today at the Waialae Country Club.
Wilson did it the old-fashioned way — he earned it, as the old commercial goes. Wilson was one of the four Monday qualifiers along with Keoke Cotner, another pro with local ties, who took medalist honors with an 8-under-par 64 at the Pearl Country Club.
Wilson shot a 68 and got in after a four-way playoff for the two remaining spots. It was a real iffy situation for Wilson, who had posted the same score in last year's qualifying, only to find it wasn't good enough.
"I was a little disappointed," Wilson said about not receiving an exemption as he anxiously looked at the scoreboard while waiting for a playoff that might never occur, considering that half of the qualifying field was still on the course when he finished.
And you couldn't blame him.
Wilson finished third on the Japan PGA Tour's money list last year, earning $912,000, depending on the latest exchange rate of the yen and dollar. He won three tournaments, including the Japan PGA match-play and stroke-play championships, both considered majors on that tour. He was the JPGA rookie of the year in 2000.
He is also ranked higher in the world standings than the five JPGA pros — Katsumasa Miyamoto, Keiichiro Fukabori, Hiroyuki Fujita, Shinichi Yokota and Tomohiro Kondo — who were given sponsor's exemptions to the 2002 Sony Open. All five were below Wilson on the 2001 JPGA Tour money list.
Wilson feels that Sony's decision was probably based on the fact that the five would draw a better television audience in Japan.
Still, it was frustrating, according to Wilson, who finished in a tie for 30th at the 2001 U.S. Open and is listed in the 2002 PGA Tour media guide among the other prominent international players, while the five Japanese players are not.
"He's the best player of all of those (Japanese pros) in this tournament, except maybe Shigeki (Maruyama)," said Hawai'i's David Ishii, the 1990 Hawaiian Open champion who also plays on the JPGA Tour.
"It's funny that Dean can get an invitation to this year's British Open and the U.S. Open and not the Sony Open," Ishii added.
Even Sadao Iwata, dean of the Japanese golf media, was surprised that Wilson did not receive an exemption and had to qualify his way into the tournament.
"I can't believe the guy's not in it. That's ridiculous," said Iwata, who covers both the PGA and JPGA tours.
Mike Weir, winner of the 2001 Tour Championship who played last week at Kapalua, was also shocked that Wilson was not given an exemption after the year he had.
"It's (garbage). I even called the tournament director to try to get him in," said Weir, a teammate of Wilson's for three years on the Brigham Young University golf team. The two led the Cougars to three straight Western Athletic Conference titles before graduating together in 1992.
Wilson won the WAC individual title in 1991.
What upset Wilson even more was that the tournament is in his home state, on his home turf.
So much for calling it the Sony Open in Hawai'i.
Still, Wilson had not been optimistic about getting a sponsor's exemption despite his success last year. He realized even Ishii, a previous winner at Waialae, had to qualify on a Monday to play in last year's tournament.
Like Wilson, Ishii did it the hard way. Ishii again had to qualify in last month's Aloha PGA sectional to play this week because no sponsor's exemption was in the mail.
It will be interesting to see how Wilson and Ishii fare this week in comparison to the other JPGA pros who received sponsor's exemptions from Sony.
Anyway, somebody should tell the Sony people back in the Tokyo office that the tournament is called the Sony Open in Hawai'i.
Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.
