Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Friday, October 29, 1999

GOLF WATCH

Best way to pay
tribute to Stewart

IT would be a fitting tribute to Payne Stewart if his spot in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf Nov. 23-24 at the Poipu Bay Resort is left open and not replaced by an alternate player.

Stewart, the reigning U.S. Open champion who tragically died in a plane crash Monday, was to have joined Tiger Woods, Jose Maria Olazabal and Peter Lawrie in the $1 million event featuring the winners of this year's four golf major championships.

The sponsoring PGA of America is expected to make a decision next Monday about the status of the event.

Mark Rolfing, NBC-TV golf analyst, offered the best suggestion I've heard:

Hold the Grand Slam as scheduled and don't name an alternate. Drop the match-play format and let the remaining three champions compete in a 36-hole stroke-play competition with the $150,000 fourth-place money going to Stewart's charitable foundation.

"Mark's idea makes a lot of sense," said Michael Castillo, director of golf at the Poipu Bay Resort on Kauai.

Castillo said he has received requests from a number of PGA Tour players for the 1999 PGA Grand Slam poster showing Stewart and the other three champions.

They want it to remember Payne, according to Castillo, who feels it's inappropriate to print a replacement poster.

Since it first hosted the Grand Slam in 1994, the Poipu Bay Resort has displayed photos of the event's foursome.

Stewart's photos around the clubhouse and the Kauai Regency Hotel this year are decorated with leis.

"It seemed the right thing to do," Castillo said about the touching gesture. "People stop to take pictures."

Stewart was to have played in the Skins Game the weekend of the PGA Grand Slam.

"I can see having a substitute for that event. There's no significance like there is in our event," Castillo said.

WIDE OPEN. The Callaway Hawaii State Open, the year's final local major tournament, figures to be a wide-open race for one reason:

Greg Meyer, the defending champion, isn't entered.

A combination of a bad back and trying to make the cut in a Japan PGA Tour event yesterday has kept Meyer from entering the 54-hole tournament starting Sunday at the Hawaii Prince Course.

Nobody will be happier than the rest of the field.

Meyer has won just about every other major event this year -- the Aloha Section PGA's stroke play and match-play championships, the GTE Hall of Fame Championship, the Mid-Pacific Open and the Sports Shinko Rainbow Open.

His absence leaves the $6,000 top prize up for grabs. Among the leading contenders are former champions Lance Suzuki, Brian Sasada, Ken Springer and Deron Doi; Nike Tour player Dean Wilson, Kevin Hayashi and Casey Nakama, who recently won the Waikoloa Open.

WINTER GOLF. A four-island, 10-event Hawaii Tour is scheduled to begin January, 2000, with Ron Kiaaina Jr. as the tournament director.

Plans call for the first of two Big Island tournaments to be held in January. Three events are scheduled for Oahu and Maui, while two will be played on Kauai in the following months.

Among the golf courses lined up so far, according to Chris Dey, are the Kona Country Club, Luana Hills, Turtle Bay and Kiahuna.

The tour will be sort of a winter golf tour, taking advantage of Hawaii's climate.