TALK about a change for the better. New year, new
start to PGA Tour
-- it’s hereFor golf fans it means the PGA Tour starting in the 50th State for the first time beginning Thursday with the Mercedes Championships at the Kapalua Resort's Plantation Course and the Sony Open in Hawaii the following week at the Waialae Country Club.
Talk about a bang-bang start.
Both are $2.6-million events, carrying a top prize worth $486,000 and reflecting the kind of huge money the PGA pros will be playing for this year.
And we're the first to see the PGA Tour's best.
Nobody is more aware of golf's many changes in 1999 than John Huston, the record-breaking winner of the final United Airlines Hawaiian Open last February.
One change, of course, is the Mercedes Championships -- the PGA's tournament of champions -- moving to Maui. It's the event's first change of venue since it moved in 1969 from Las Vegas to the La Costa Country Club in Carlsbad, Calif.
Then, it's the Sony Open -- the tour's first full-field event -- which has replaced the Hawaiian Open on the tour calendar.
Having the two back-to-back will give Hawaii greater exposure, according to Huston.
The most dramatic change, though, is what they've done to toughen up Waialae. For one thing, they've converted two par-5 holes to par 4's, making it play to a par 70 instead of 72. And the rough will be rough.
HUSTON got a sneak preview of the revamped Waialae course yesterday before heading to Kapalua, where he'll join the elite 30-player field that includes defending champion Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, British and Masters champion Mark O'Meara, U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, PGA Championship winner Vijay Singh and David Duval, a four-time winner last year.
Huston must feel good that nobody's ever going to come close to his 28-under-par set last year at Waialae, which broke a 43-year PGA Tour record. At least at the new Waialae.
"If the wind blows at all, I think 28 under will be pretty safe," he said.
It was interesting to watch Huston play the three most drastically changed holes at Waialae -- the tournament first, second and 13th holes.
The first and 13th are the par-4 converts. The tee at the par-4 second has been moved back to require a 230-yard carry over the lake left of the fairway.
"They're all good changes," said Huston, although he thinks the first hole is going to play to a "real hard par 4." With a Kona wind yesterday, he didn't even come close to getting on in two.
He used a 1-iron off the tee at No. 2, splitting the fairway and birdieing the hole. At 13, he was in the left green-side bunker in two and saved par with a 10-foot putt.
"That's a birdie, right?" Huston said about his 4. "We usually play for a 4 there, so that's OK. It's going to go from an easy par 5 to a difficult par 4."
NOT so with the first hole, according to Huston.
"I think No. 1 is probably going to be the hardest hole on the course. You're going to see some bad scores there. You're gonna to have to hit a perfect drive to have any chance of hitting the green in two and putting for birdie. That's the one hole that's going to stick out. It's going to be interesting to see how it plays.
"The biggest thing, though, will be the rough. You're not going to get many low scores with that rough. Three or four under is going to be a really good score. A 70 won't get lapped by the field."
Anyway, as that gorgeous Mercedes Championships poster of the opening hole at the Plantation Course with Molokai in the background put it, "The PGA Tour Starts Here."
That it does with a bang. Two bangs for the bucks, actually.