GOLF WATCH
Hawaii’s highlight reel
in Year of the Tiger
IT'LL be Year 2000 before you know it, like tomorrow, and Y2K will begin with a bang in the world of golf with four consecutive weekends of professional golf in Hawaii once again.
The biggest question next week is if Tiger Woods can continue his amazing winning streak.
He has won four straight PGA-sanctioned tournaments at the end of the year. As that Titleist ad proclaims, the only thing that stopped Tiger's winning streak was the end of the season.
Can he make it No. 5 in a row by winning the Mercedes Championships next week at Kapalua when the PGA Tour opens its 2000 season?
But before we look ahead to next year, it would be a good time to look back at some of the top golf stories of the year.
Forget any Top 10 list. Enough already.
Instead, here are some of the golfing highlights of the last year of this century:
The PGA Tour starts in Hawaii with the Mercedes Championships, won by David Duval with a blistering 26-under 260 at the Kapalua Plantation Course on Maui. It's followed by the tour's first full-field event, the Sony Open in Hawaii, which replaced the Hawaiian Open at the Waialae Country Club as United Airlines ended its long relationship as title sponsor.
Tiger Woods becomes golf's first $7-million man by winning the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at the Poipu Bay Resort on Kauai, beating Davis Love III, 3 and 2.
The LPGA adds a second tour event in the 50th State, the LPGA Takefuji Classic, at the Kona Country Club. It'll be two weeks after the Cup Noodles Hawaiian Ladies Open at Kapolei, but future plans call for making it back-to-back in 2001 and 2002.
The Senior Skins Game will move to Wailea's Golf Course on Maui in 2001 and 2002 after its 10th and final year at the Mauna Lani Resort Jan. 29-30.
Greg Meyer was named Aloha Section PGA's Golfer of the Year after winning five titles -- Mid-Pacific Open, GTE Hawaiian Tel Hall of Fame Classic, Sports Shinko Rainbow Open and the AT&T Aloha Section PGA Stroke Play and Match Play championships.
Hilo High School wins the first Hawaii High School Athletic Association girls' state golf championship at the Hapuna Course on the Big Island.
Happy Y2K. Aaron Bengoechea, former Kaiser High golfer, qualifies for the PGA Tour, and Hilo's Christel Tomori earns her playing card for the Futures Tour. Former Big Islander Steve Veriato is a partial qualifier for the Senior PGA Tour.
Hale Irwin ends Raymond Floyd's five-year reign in the Senior Skins Game at the Mauna Lani Resort , winning $230,000.
Hilo's Shane Hoshino beats defending champion Brandan Kop, 4 and 3, in the Manoa Cup.
State Amateur champion Regan Lee qualifies for the U.S. Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach but misses cut in the 36-hole qualifying.
Bruce Fleisher wins the Kaanapali Classic with a 14-under 199 en route to the Senior PGA Tour money title, ending Hale Irwin's two-year reign.
Kevin Hayashi captures the Callaway Hawaii State Open as the event moves to the Hawaii Prince Course -- the first Oahu venue for the event since 1992. Christel Tomori wins the women's title.
