Stuart Appleby with Trophy
The 2006 golf season starts in Hawaii and will for the foreseeable future. One of the big announcements from the PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem is a shorter golf season, with a heated finale in September and a final few weeks to determine who gets to stay in the elite PGA Tour for the players who are facing being culled from the ranks of the top 125 money winners. All of this doesn't mean much to the average fan unless one of your favorites is facing the cut, like Hawaii's Dean Wilson so often in the past few years has.
Kapalua Plantation Course
But more importantly for the State of Hawaii's economy, and Maui in particular, we do know the Mercedes Championships will be the season opening event, even if it's changed a bit, as Vice President of Kapalua resort Gary Planos let us know when "The Golf Club" broadcast from the 2006 Mercedes Championships the weekend of January 7th. Mercedes is also in line to be the title sponsor and the negotiations continue with the new television deal worked out with the PGA Tour. This new deal gives The Golf Channel an unprecedented 15 year contract to take on a bigger role in golf coverage plus CBS joining NBC committing to a 7 year deal.
"The Hawaii State Junior Golf Association is holding a college workshop on February 22nd from 6 until 7:30 pm at the Pearl Country Club. It's open to parents, juniors, instructors, coaches and anyone else interested. It will be for college bound athletes with NCAA guidelines for recruitment, academic and athletic requirements for college, athletic scholarships and a lot more will be covered including how to get noticed by coaches. There's a great team preparing a panel discussion including former LPGA now The Golf Channel and NBC sports analyst Dottie Pepper and Tim Mickleson, University of San Diego golf and younger brother of Phil Mickleson. Call 808 532 0559 for more information.
The "Sonic Golf" clinic is set for a weekend in March, probably the 11th on Maui. The idea for a way for people to hear their swing came from a Yale University professor. Dr. Robert Grober took his idea and created a device. When it¹s inserted in the grip of your club this device makes it possible for you to hear the sound of your swing through headphones. Lots of people, including teaching professionals at ChampionsGate in Florida where David Leadbetter teaches, have been amazed at how fast a golfer can change their swing when sound goes with the swing tempo. For more information call Dunes at Maui Lani Bill Greenleaf 808 873 0422"
The Mercedes Championships field was slim with only 28 of the world's top players showing up, including the two time defending champion Stuart Appleby.
But the wind was howling and that, plus the beautiful new greens, made the golf fantastic. And it all came down to another exciting finish with Stuart Appleby, the two time defending champion hoping for the three peat, holding off a determined Vijah Singh in a playoff.. Even 2005 U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell and Sergio Garcia found themselves at times challenging Appleby but the Australian stuck it out.
The question everyone was asking Appleby was how in the world does he know this course so well! It's not easy to play the Kapalua Plantation course, particularly when the wind is blowing up to 40 mph. His answer was pure golf - "I wish I could tell you there was something, some secret I have here. No, there's nothing. Maybe I get - pick the right club more often than others. I don't know if I hole more putts or not. It's not like I'm six shots ahead every year and I just rump away with it." Never heard the expression "rump away" with something!
Stuart Appleby, from Australia, center, celebrates afar making a birdie to beat Vijay Singh, right facing, in a playoff on the 18th hole during the final round of the Mercedes Championships in Kapalua, Hawaii, Sunday, January 8, 2006. It was Appleby's third win in a row at the Mercedes Championships. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
And there was a first at this years Championships. A hole in one!
In this photo released by the Mercedes Championship Golf Tournament, Lucas Glover, right, high fives the spectators as he enters the eighth green after sinking a hole in one during the 3rd round of the Mercedes Championships in Kapalua, Hawaii, Saturday, January 7, 2006. Glover hit the hole in one on the 8th hole, the first ever hole in one at the Mercedes Championships since the tournament moved to Kampala's Plantation Course in 1999. He gets a 2006 Mercedes-Benz CL S55 AMG.
The first full field event for the PGA Tour followed the Mercedes Championships, the 2006 Sony Open in Hawaii with Vijay Singh there to defend his title, plus Appleby and the Rookie of the Year Sean O'Hair and celebrities from around the world including Will Smith and Adam Sandler but none of them mattered one bit because it was all about Michelle Wie. Would this would be the year, this third Sony Open, in which she would make the cut on the PGA Tour. All week long she entertained the fans and the top officials of her two multi million dollar sponsors, Nike and Sony. She was all smiles and merriment, playing on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday during the Pro Am and then on Thursday, the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii. And, man did she fall. As she put it, "I didn't think I was doing that bad." But none of her putts would drop and even her tee shots were going so wild, her agent had to protect his head with his note board where her ball left a mean dent!
Michelle Wie reacts after missing a putt at the 8th hole at Waialae Country Club during the first round of the Sony Open in Honolulu, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2006.
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Carding a 9 over 79 on that first round, she held back the tears and put on her best face, bravely announcing it would take a 61 for her to make the cut. Well not quite. If she could have shot a 67 on Friday, she would have made it but she could only manage a 68. An amazing 68 but it left her four shots shy of making the cut and 40 men ahead of the last name on the leaderboard.
She looked amazing.
PGA Tour broadcaster Bob Bubka, staying at the Hawaii Prince Hotel, had a chance to speak with her
And so the 2006 Sony Open in Hawaii continued, with only Parker McLaughlin from the Hawaii contingent left in the field. He ended the event T59th, a very respectable finish for the now NationWide Tour player who got into the Sony Open during the Monday qualifier.
Parker McLaughlin, 808golf.com
You know who was on McLaughlin's bag? Former U.S. Open champion Scott Simpson. Seems McLaughlin caddied for Simpson so he thought he'd return the favor!
But who came out on top at the Sony Open?
David Toms, the same man you may have seen being taken away on a stretcher at the end of last year.
Diagnosed with a hole in his heart, he underwent an operation to repair that hole. He has also recovered from wrist bone spurs in the last three years. The week of the Mercedes Championships, where he finished close to the top of the leaderboard, Toms was having a good time.
Healthy is a great word. And now, just a week after the Mercedes Championships, David Toms is the defending Sony Open in Hawaii Champion. Obviously Toms is a great inspiration for people who think the best may be over for them but instead with perseverance and patience they get back on top.
Another great example is Chad Campbell.
Here is Campbell after Toms whipped past him on the final round at the Sony Open.
Below are two audio clips of Chad Campbell at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, which he won the week after the Sony.
Meanwhile in Hawaii at the season opening MasterCard Championship at Hualalai, Loren Roberts made a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a course-record 11-under 61 and a one-stroke victory over Don Pooley on Jan. 22 in the Champions Tour's season-opening MasterCard Championship.
Hualalai Golf Course on the Big Island
The 50-year-old Roberts had a 25-under 191 total on the Hualalai course to shatter the Champions Tour record for relation to par in a 54-hole event and also finished with 26 birdies to break another tour record for a three-round tournament.
Loren Roberts
The Turtle Bay Championship is the first full field event for the Champions Tour at the Turtle Bay Resort. Hale Irwin is looking forward to playing on a course he has shattered many of his own records.
The beginning of this month, it's the Champions Skins at Wailea, bigger and better than ever the pairings include Jack Nicklaus, the defending champion, and Tom Watson, Gary Player and Hale Irwin, Arnold Palmer and Peter Jacobsen, and Raymond Floyd and Dana Quigley. Jacobsen did pull out of the Turtle Bay Championship because his knee is bothering him. He is recovering from knee surgery.
Then the women on the LPGA Tour take center stage. The SBS Open at Turtle Bay Resort followed by the 2006 Fields Open at Ko Olina. Michelle Wie will be playing at the Fields Open and tickets are available at $10 a day or $25 for the week pass.
The Fields Open, the inaugural event this year, expects to have many of the stellar players on the LPGA Tour including Ai Miyazako and Michelle Wie. Wie wasn't expected to play in the SBS Open because that would take up two of the six LPGA events she can play as a non LPGA member. After all, as her father BJ Wie says, she has a full school schedule. Wie is expected to play the Kraft Nabisco, the LPGA McDonalds Championship, the Evian Masters in France, the Samsung World Championship plus one other event in August that is still up in the air. She won't play in the Safeway International because they've changed the dates this year. So that leaves one LPGA event and the British Open and the U.S. Open. She is guaranteed a spot in the British but she must qualify this year for the U.S. Women. And then there are the possible PGA events she'll be invited to participate in, where she hopes she'll make the cut. Most people think it's only a matter of time. You can listen to the debate we had at the Sony Open about whether Wie should even both with the PGA until she wins on the LPGA. Just a hint... the consensus seems to be... go for it!
Michelle Wie before the 2006 Sony Open in Hawaii first round
Check out "The Golf Club radio show. All of our shows are archived at www.radiogolfclub.com.
Until then, thank you for your Mana, and may you hit the sweet spot every time.
Aloha,
Danielle Tucker
