Off the Fringe
Off the Fringe
OAHU'S North Shore has always lured surfers in the same way Hollywood lures actors and Nashville lures musicians. Turtle Bay lures golfers
But this week big-wave surfing will take a back seat to professional golf, as 78 members of the Senior PGA Tour vie for $1.5 million at the inaugural Turtle Bay Championship.
The Turtle Bay event is one of the last three stops on the 2001 Senior Tour and it promises to offer a little bit of everything. For instance:
>> Seven of the Senior Tour's Top 10 money leaders will be on hand, including the top three -- Bruce Fleisher, Allen Doyle and Hale Irwin. Doyle and Fleisher are in a horse race to win the Charles Schwab Cup, a competition that awards points based on wins and Top 10 finishes. The winner gets a $1 million tax-deferred annuity.
>> Also on hand will be gallery favorites Gary Player, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Isao Aoki.
>> Hometown favorites Lance Suzuki and Steve Veriato will be in the field. The Hilo-born Veriato won his first Senior PGA tournament this year at the Novell Utah Showdown, while Suzuki grew up in Kahuku, just down the road from Turtle Bay. The former Brigham Young All-American played the Tour in the 1970s and tied for fifth with Tom Watson in the 1977 Hawaiian Open.
In addition to star power and a strong field, the Turtle Bay Championship has a terrific venue in its Arnold Palmer Course (formerly The Links at Kuilima). You name it and this course has it: natural beauty, a great design, length, character and plenty of trouble. Senior PGA Tour officials say the fairways are the best they play all year.
From the back tees, the Palmer layout measures 7,199 yards (it will play 7,028 yards for the tournament), with a course rating of 75.3 and a slope rating of 141. Throw in lots of trees, sand, strong winds and 14 holes guarded by water and you have a challenging course. It's a course that will reward you if you play well and punish you if you don't. It's not a course where you can hit the ball all over and expect to be rescued by your putter.
"This course is no pushover," says Dennis Rose, Turtle Bay's director of golf. "It's going to provide a real good test. I'm sure there will be some low scores, but I'd be surprised if they go really low."
Local golf fans may recall that in 1998, the PGA Tour considered 10 Hawaii sites before selecting the Plantation Course at Kapalua to host the season-opening Mercedes Championships.
One of those was the Palmer Course at Turtle Bay. At that time, the resort didn't have the facilities that are now coming on line (see accompanying story) to host a PGA Tour event. Which was too bad, because the PGA Tour really liked the course. The Senior PGA Tour likes it, too. It's a course that the Senior Tour -- and Turtle Bay -- can build a future around.