it’s not a new problem, although perhaps a worsening one—getting golf’s top names to come to Hawaii.
starting the year in the pacific paradise used to be
considered a bonus, but for the game’s best it has
become a burden. at the season-opening Hyundai
tournament of champions—a limited-field, four-round, no-cut relative romp in which holdover
holiday facial hair isn’t uncommon—the names of
the seven no-shows from the eligible field of 37 were
troubling: rory mcilroy, luke donald, tiger woods,
Justin rose ( 1 through 4 in the world ranking), along
with ernie els, phil mickelson and sergio garcia.
among all the reasons the main one is the expanding late-year schedule of global tournaments that
shortens the traditional recharging period. at
Kapalua there was growing sentiment among players
that the tournament should be held one week later.
that, however, would threaten the existence of the
sony open, the full-field event that has been played
in Honolulu for the last 48 years. sponsors, understandably, are in reevaluation mode. Hyundai, which
due to the pga tour changing its official season
start to october will be losing its “first tournament”
distinction, hasn’t re-upped for next year. sony,
meanwhile, is only signed through 2014.
—Jaime Diaz (@JaimeDiaz24)
02hawaii;no-show
stan badz/pga tour
cover // contents // 10 things // zinger’s corner // equipment // tim rosaforte
