In The Wood
The eyes of the golf world were on Hawaii this month for the Mercedes event with Tiger Woods, at Kapalua, Maui, and the Sony Open with colorful Sergio Garcia, the Mercedes winner, at Waialae Country Club. Hawaii shows its beauty
through golfThe economic benefit of having two PGA tournaments here did not go unnoticed by Gov. Ben Cayetano, our golfing guv.
"Hosting two world-class golf tournaments in Hawaii with the most high-profile names in the sport is a great accomplishment for our state," Cayetano said.
"The media coverage we receive that highlights the sunshine and beauty of Hawaii while others are suffering through cold weather elsewhere is advertising that we could never afford if we had to pay for it.
"It also occurs at a time when the state is very much in need of drumming up business for our visitor industry."
Well said, guv. And this weekend the Big Island has the PGA Senior Tour's MasterCard Championship at the Hualalai course.
Hawaii's Dean Wilson showed he has the right stuff with a solid showing in the Sony.
After a 74 on opening day, he came back with a fine 66 the next day to make the cut and then fired 67s the next two days for a 6-under-par 247 total. That gave him a tie for 23rd in the 144-man field worth $33,714.
A few years ago, Dean was in Keith Tanaka's Roots and Relics looking over golf clubs.
After Dean left, Keith told me that the former Castle High student, who went on to win the Western Athletic Conference golf title while at BYU, had the best chance of today's Hawaii golfers to make the PGA Tour.
"Three years ago we were on his trail," Keith said. "Dean has a great all-around game and he has the right mental approach, which is so important."
Dean has been playing well in Japan, earning big bucks.
Callaway Golf Co. is playing up his success in Japan, pointing out that Dean uses the company's ERC II forged titanium driver and other equipment.
Dean also used Callaway's new CTU 30 red ball in winning the Ube Kosan Open in November, his third victory last year.
Some Sony golfers found it convenient to stay at the Kahala Mandarin, just off the course. They included Jerry Kelly, Garcia, Paul Azinger, Scott Simpson, Tom Lehman, Brad Faxon, Scott Hoch, Frank Lickliter, Larry Mize, Jeff Sluman, Jesper Parnevik, Billy Andrade, Jim Furyk, Davis Love III and Jeff Maggert.
Surprise winner Kelly is a true Irishman. He even signs autographs using a pen with green ink ... Gary Planos, Kapalua golf director, watched some of the Sony action from the Halekulani's Skybox. "We got lucky," he said modestly, over the success of the Mercedes ... Halekulani senior adviser Shuei Okuda was also among those in the hotel's box. Okuda, a low single-digit handicapper, has four holes-in-one to his credit.
Ben Wood, who played his first round of golf at Ala Wai
50 years ago, vows to learn how to play the game well even if
it takes another 50 years. E-mail him at bwood@starbulletin.com.