Sports Watch
CALL it gender equity. Now it's the women's turn to grab the local golf spotlight with the LPGA's 54-hole Cup Noodles Hawaiian Ladies Open beginning Thursday at the Kapolei Golf Course. A look back at this
year’s Hawaiian OpenThe United Airlines Hawaiian Open enjoyed one of its best finishes in its 32-year history with a three-man, four-hole playoff Sunday at the Waialae Country Club. Paul Stankowski outlasted defending champion Jim Furyk in a duel that must have made Kapalua International chairman Mark Rolfing happy.
Furyk won at Kapalua in November, 1995, and then at Waialae the following February. Furyk tried his best, but couldn't prevent Stankowski from matching his two-tournament Hawaii coup. Both said they'll be back at Kapalua this November to try and pull off another Hawaiian sweep.
The best Hawaii two-step, though, was turned in by Mark O'Meara, who won the Hawaiian Open and then the Kapalua International in the same year - 1985.
Rolfing might want to send out invitations with the following intro, "Win the Kapalua International and then the Hawaiian Open."
Stankowski, who went deep-sea fishing off Lahaina yesterday before heading for the Tucson Open this week, has the distinction of holding five titles at the moment - the two here, the Casio World Open in Japan, the BellSouth Classic and the Nike Louisiana Classic.
HE'LL defend four of them - all except the Nike event. Nothing against the Nike Tour. It's just that it conflicts with the Players Championship the same last weekend in March.
The tournament he's really looking forward to is the Masters. Doesn't everyone? One of golf's up-and-coming young guns, Stankowski failed to make the cut at Augusta last year. But you can't blame him for being mentally unprepared for Augusta, a golf course that's tough to master, pardon the pun, even with repeated visits, let alone a first look.
You have to win a PGA Tour event to qualify for the Masters, perhaps the most difficult golf major to crash. Stankowski qualified just the week before by winning the BellSouth Classic.
Another guy who wants to win the Masters so bad he can taste it is Paul Azinger, a three-time runner-up and gallery favorite at Waialae. Azinger, whose only top 10 finish last year was in the Hawaiian Open, ended up tied for ninth Sunday.
He's taking two weeks off before playing in several Florida events to get cranked up and focused for the Masters. "I want to play well in the Masters for a change," said Azinger, who like Tom Lehman, is taking this week off from the PGA Tour and vacationing on Maui.
"I've been thinking about the Masters for some time now. I never have putted particularly well at Augusta. Big, breaking greens. I've had great ball-striking rounds but came out of there fairly empty. I'd like to get in contention and maybe win it."
ANOTHER feel-good story at this year's Hawaiian Open involved Darrell Kestner, the reigning National Club Pro champion. By winning that title, he got an exemption for three tour events this year.
The Hawaiian Open was the first tournament that came to mind, according to Kestner, who played at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am as Harry Crosby's guest before coming here. Kestner made the cut, picking up a modest $2,580.
Actually, coming here was his wife's, Margie, idea. "My wife picked Hawaii," said Kestner, a bachelor when he played in the 1983 Hawaiian Open - also making the cut - as an aspiring touring pro.
He gets to pick the other two places - most likely the Westchester Classic because it's near their New York home and the Michelob Championship in Williamsburg, Va., another tourist destination site.