Hawaiian Open loses its major sponsor

United Airlines' decision to terminate its sponsorship opens the door for Rolfing

By Bill Kwon
Star-Bulletin

It's official.

United Airlines announced its termination as sponsor of the Hawaiian Open and the Kapalua Bay Resort said it reached an agreement in principle to host a $2 million PGA event called the Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua Open beginning the 1999 season.

Mark Rolfing: "It's a different
site (Kapalua), but it's
still Hawaii's tournament."

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That ended several days of speculation regarding the fate of the Hawaiian Open, which will end with its final tournament next February at the Waialae Country Club.

"It's a different site, but it's still Hawaii's tournament," said Mark Rolfing, chairman of the Kapalua tournament.

"I'm obviously pleased and so happy for everybody at Kapalua. It's been a long and complicated process. There have been a number of times when it might not have happened."

The PGA Tour also announced that the 1999 season would begin in Hawaii with the Mercedes Championships involving the 1998 tournament winners the week before Kapalua. The site has not been determined.

The Kapalua Open agreement is subject to approval by the PGA Tour policy board, which will meet June 3 in Washington, D.C. In addition, the resort will work with tour officials on certain modifications for Kapalua's Plantation Course to be determined during an upcoming site visit by the competition department.

The 72-hole Kapalua Open set for Jan. 14-17 with a 156-player field will feature a $2 million purse with a first prize of $360,000. The field will play one round each at the Plantation and Bay courses for the 36-hole cut.

ESPN will televise all four rounds live in prime time on the East Coast.

The new PGA event replaces the Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua International, an unofficial-money event, which will not be held beginning 1998.

The PGA Tour approached Kapalua to host the event after United Airlines declined to sponsor the Hawaiian Open after 1998.

UAL said in a prepared release that changes by the PGA Tour in the date of the Hawaiian Open, a requested increase of $800,000 in purse and other considerations made it impossible to continue underwriting the event, which has been held at Waialae since 1965.

"We are pleased that Hawaii will not lose one of the greatest global marketing tools for its visitor industry as the 1999 PGA Tour has substituted another tournament," UAL officials said. "We are looking forward to another great United Airlines Hawaiian Open in 1998."