By Dave Donnelly
Monday, February 10, 1997
Siggy Poesch, Mufi Hannemann
Siggy Poesch, Mufi Hannemann
IF you're a golf fan you were probably rejoicing yesterday that the new wunderkind of the fairways, Tiger Woods, overcame jet lag and heat stroke in Thailand and not only finished the big golf tourney held there (claiming a $480,000 appearance fee) but won the thing and pocketed another $300,000. Now I don't know what that adds up to in baht, the national currency, baht you can bet it's a bundle. If you were watching the tournaments on TV yesterday, you saw Mark O'Meara and Hale Irwin win the PGA and Seniors Tourney respectively. And if you watch the "Hawaii Sports Adventure" on ESPN Wednesday you can see Danny Kaleikini win a tourney. Say what? ... Kaleikini latest golf champ
THAT'S right - defying all odds, the "Ambassador of Aloha" wasn't showing much to the other contestants in the 27-hole "TieBreaker" tourney which was filmed recently at Waikoloa's King's Course. Danny and Pardee Erdman represented Hawaii in the group of eight amateurs who teamed with eight pros including Peter Jacobson, Scott Simpson, Brad Faxon and Tom Purtzer. The tourney was another opportunity to show off Hawaii's beauty on national TV and was the brainchild of Waikoloa Land Company president Tom Rohr. Danny was teamed with Purtzer in the tourney and while the latter got a check for $25,000, "amateur" Kaleikini had to settle for a new set of clubs ...
REMEMBER the old tune, "This Joint is Jumpin' "? It might be referring to Nicholas Nickolas, where tomorrow a weekly series of "Jazz Nights" kicks off with mainland and island musicians sitting in with "New Heights," the in-house band ... The Aloha Tower Marketplace was jumpin' last week when a Mardi Gras celebration got underway. Bon Ton Roule packed Gordon Biersch's with fine Cajun music and traditional masks and beads were everywhere. Just feet away, the dance floor was awash with celebrants enjoying the non-Cajun offerings of Willy K at the Pier Bar. Sexist Girl-watching Report: Lots of attractive young ladies apparently well connected, since most had cellular phones and/or beepers ...
THE Mardi Gras celebration was a kind of aloha party for Gordon Biersch G.M. Bruce Faber, who's tendered his resignation ... Randy Schoch of the Ruth's Chris Steak House chain, slipped into town for a day and visited with G.M. Al Hosoi before dashing to Maui, where a Ruth's Chris might be sizzling on a front burner ... Former Bistro owner Mike Pirics and wife flew in from Western Samoa (where he operates a restaurant) for a taste of home. He says he's lost track of former partner Karl Diebold from the old Bistro days, but heard that he was dividing his time between France and Mexico ... And it's a final "last call" for Siggy Poesch, longtime manager of the Third Floor in the Hawaiian Regent. His personal attention was a major reason the place was perhaps Honolulu's finest restaurant for more than 20 years. Siggy died last week, and friends are invited to bid him farewell Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at San Souci Beach fronting the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel ... Comings and goings
TRAFFIC should be congested in Kakaako today when a parking ban takes effect on Cooke Street makai of Ala Moana and along Ilalo Street behind Honolulu Ford. Construction is underway to build the entrance to the extension of Waterfront Park, and those who've used that area for parking will be looking elsewhere ...
WHEN City Councilman Mufi Hannemann attended Harvard, he was certainly a "Big Man on Campus" if only because he played center on the Crimson basketball team. He was back in Cambridge last week, and again was a stand-out, this time as the keynote speaker at the Hawaii Club, made up of students and grads who are or were attending school on the East Coast. The club is based on the Harvard campus, and Mufi spoke on "Mixed Plate - Is Hawaii America's Tomorrow?" Hannemann dealt, appropriately, with Hawaii's ethnic mix living and working together, and not just the luau that followed ... Big Man on Campus
