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Sports Watch
Y2K? No problem. But the Year 2001 might see some scheduling difficulties for golf events in Hawaii that will send PGA Tour officials scrambling for solutions. So much golf, so little
time in 2001At the Mercedes Championships, it was blithely mentioned that the event next year will be moved back a week because the World Golf Championships in Australia will take its slot in the first week of January, 2001.
So that means the Mercedes Championships featuring Tiger Woods - again - will be held at the Kapalua Resort on Maui, Jan. 11-14.
The Sony Open in Hawaii will be moved back a week as well to Jan. 18-21.
The 2001 Senior Skins Game is booked at Wailea, Maui, during the weekend of Super Bowl XXXV, which will be played on Jan. 27.
Suddenly, there are no more open weekends next January.
So where does that leave the Senior PGA Tour's season-opener - the MasterCard Championship, which usually precedes the Senior Skins Game on the tour calendar?
"When's the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai going to be held?" I asked the PGA Tour office in Florida.
"We'll get back to you," was the reply.
I'm still waiting.
"We may have a conflict," says Sam Ainslie, Hualalai's senior vice president.
WHAT a conflict it would present if the MasterCard Championship is held the same weekend as the Sony Open at the Waialae Country Club.
The PGA Tour would be competing with itself, although the events are on different islands.
The two tournaments would also be competing for television viewers as well. CBS will be doing the Sony Open, which is the regular tour's first full-field event, and ESPN will be televising the Senior Tour's season opener.
That's not all, Hawaii sports fans.
That third weekend in January is also when the Rivals.Com Hula Bowl will be held on Maui. And the college football all-star game is also being televised by ESPN.
I'm sure the PGA and especially the ESPN people will sort out all the conflicts, though perhaps not to everyone's satisfaction. But there surely will have to be a conflict in the golf schedule, no matter what's decided.
For once, it's too much of a good thing.
THE Year 2001 might also bring two other changes that local sports fans will find different from their accustomed spot on their sports calendars.
For one, it's very likely that for the first time since its inception in 1964, the Rainbow Classic might be moved from its usual two-days-after-Christmas start to an earlier date in December.
It's because Louisiana Tech joins the Western Athletic Conference as its 10th member in 2001.
With an 18-game (home and away) regular-season schedule in basketball, the WAC will need to start conference play sooner, if it wants to maintain its philosophy of playing only two games a week.
That would necessitate moving up the Rainbow Classic a week or two.
"We're looking at all the different options," said UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida. Especially with TV in mind.
One option, though not likely, would be opening WAC play before the Rainbow Classic.
If that's not all, in 2001 the NFL might move the Super Bowl to the first Sunday in February. Which means that the Pro Bowl would be played the second Sunday in February.
Happy 2001.
Bill Kwon has been writing about
sports for the Star-Bulletin since 1959.