| Posted on: Thursday, November 22, 2001
Around the Greens
State must hold on to these pro tournaments
By Bill Kwon
Actually, when you come down to it, the PGA Grand Slam of Golf needs Tiger Woods more than the other way around. Even the sponsoring PGA of America officials will reluctantly agree.
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| The Grand Slam of Golf not only brings out the best golfers, but some of the most scenic shots in Hawai'i.
Associated Press
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With golf's most dominating player showing up year after year, the event involving the winners of golf's four majors can always guarantee a decent share of the national television audience. More of the crossover market if Tiger is playing.
And so the PGA Grand Slam — like the Mercedes Championships — are valuable TV events because you know Tiger will always qualify to play in them. Both are tournaments for winners only, and Tiger is definitely a winner.
Both events showcase Hawai'i at its sunniest best when it's wintry cold on the Mainland.
The PGA Grand Slam finished its eighth year at the Po'ipu Bay Golf Course on Kaua'i yesterday with Tiger winning again for an unprecedented fourth straight time. The Mercedes Championships — involving the winners of previous year's tournaments — has become an annual January celebration starting the PGA Tour season since 1999.
Obviously, both are keepers and particularly vital to Hawai'i's golf and travel industry, along with the Sony Open, which also gets a lot of national television airtime. So it behooves the state to make every effort with the PGA Tour to see that they remain here.
The state practically gave away the Pro Bowl to the National Football League so that the all-star football can remain here. It must also do the same to keep professional golf tournaments here as well, especially since the latter does a better job of showcasing Hawai'i's natural beauty on television.
The state can't take the current professional golf tournaments for granted. Already, it has lost one LPGA tournament for next year — the Hawaiian Ladies Open. Others may soon follow, if there are no added incentives to keep them here.
The Mercedes and Sony events will remain intact in the new four-year TV package beginning in 2003. But it has been a year-to-year existence for the other tournaments.
Agreement was reached Sunday to keep the PGA Grand Slam at the Po'ipu Bay Resort for another year. And talks are being held to discuss a multi-year contract, according to Myles Shibata, the resort's general manager.
He's optimistic the PGA Grand Slam will stick around for a while. Shibata realizes it is Kaua'i's only prime-time event and it is important to keep it on the Garden Island.
Hawai'i nearly lost its only Senior PGA Tour event — the Ka'anapali Classic — when the Maui resort owner, Amfac Hawai'i, decided not to play host to the tournament after a 14-year run because of financial difficulties.
Fortunately, O'ahu's Turtle Bay Resort stepped in to save it this year with five months to spare.
Mark Rolfing, Hawai'i's liaison with the PGA Tour and a former member of the Hawai'i Tourism Authority, believes that without the agreement that it had with the tour, the senior event might have gone bye-bye. It also helped that the resort's new owner committed to play host to the renamed Turtle Bay Championship for another three years.
There's no similar agreement with the LPGA Tour and that resulted in the loss of the Hawaiian Ladies Open, leaving only the Takefuji Classic on the Big Island as its only tour stop locally next season.
Even that event has seen a sudden-change in tournament sites. It'll be played next Feb. 28-March 2 at the Waikoloa Resort Kings Course after two years at the Kona Country Club.
"We're excited about hosting it. We have great facilities," said Thos Rohr, president of Waikoloa Land Company. "It's not a one-year deal. We want to have it multi-years."
Rohr realizes there's no national television exposure for Waikoloa.
"The ladies don't get much television. But this is a nice Japanese connection for us," he said.
Still, the Takefuji Classic is precariously hanging alone out there as the only LPGA stop locally. It's in sore need of a back-to-back tournament to make it worthwhile for the LPGA's premier players to come here.
A lot of support is needed by everyone. Otherwise it could be aloha to golf's Aloha Season.
Pros in Governor's Cup
Kevin Hayashi, the Aloha Section PGA player of the year, will be skipping the 28th Governor's Cup next Monday and Tuesday at the Mid-Pacific Country Club, but the pros will field another tough team led by Casey Nakama and Kevin Carll.
Joining the two in the Ryder Cup-type event will be Regan Lee, Ron Castillo Jr., Beau Yokomoto, Jerry Mullen, Lance Suzuki, Larry Stubblefield, Ed Tischler, Andrew Feldmann, Tommy Hines and Scott Kaneko.
Brandan Kop, Joe Phengsavath, Kellen-Floyd Asao, Randy Shibuya, Gabriel Wilson, Del-Marc Fujita, Jonathan Ota, Paul Kimura, Norman-Ganin Asao, Jarett Hamamoto and Parker McLachlin make up the 12-man amateur team that was announced earlier.
By being a member of the amateur team, they can compete for the one qualifying berth in the 2002 Sony Open.
The format calls for two-man bestball and alternate-ball matches the first day and 12 individual matches on Tuesday.
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