Wednesday, January 2, 2002
[HAWAII GOLF]
Maui greets While the rest of the country is ensconced in football, a small part of West Maui welcomes the start of the PGA Tour season.
best of PGA
2001 winners open season at Kapalua
The Plantation course will be a challenge for the elite field of 32
By Paul Arnett
parnett@starbulletin.comNot that the $4 million Mercedes Championships will be overlooked. Anytime you have Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, David Duval and Davis Love III walking the grounds, there will be a camera or two there, also.
They are part of an elite field of 32, who qualified for this week's tournament by winning a PGA Tour event in 2001. The past three winners since the Mercedes moved to Maui in 1999 are here, including defending champion Jim Furyk, who overcame a wrist injury to beat Rory Sabbatini by one shot. It was his only win in the 2001 season.
Such is not the case for 2000 Mercedes champion Woods and 1999 winner Duval. The twosome won half the majors last year: Woods at the Masters and Duval at the British Open. Making only 19 PGA Tour appearances, Woods also captured the Bay Hill Invitational, The Players Championship, the Memorial and the NEC Invitational.
Compared to his miraculous run in 2000, last year might seem ho-hum for Woods followers.
"But there's not a player out here on tour who wouldn't want a year like that," Duval said while here for the Grand Slam of Golf. "This is not an easy game. You're constantly making adjustments, which makes what Tiger has done the last couple of years even more amazing."
U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen and PGA Championship winner David Toms will also be exploring the demanding par-73, 7,263-yard Plantation Course that requires golf carts to take players to some of the distant outposts on both nines. Other notables in the field include Sony Open winner Brad Faxon, Scott Verplank, Justin Leonard, Jesper Parnevik, Hal Sutton, Scott Hoch and Mark Calcavecchia.
Garcia, who is scheduled to appear in the Sony Open next week, heads a strong foreign contingent. Not only are he, Parnevik, and Goosen competing from distant lands, but so are Robert Allenby, Kenny Perry and Mike Wier.
They are all chasing the coveted first-place trophy, and the $720,000 and the new Mercedes that go with it. As you would expect, Woods will draw most of the attention from the cozy crowd of 3,000 or so fans expected each morning and afternoon of the four-day event.
Not much of a threat last year, Woods is coming off a win at his own tournament last month and seems ready for the rigors of tour golf. He has faced a steady stream of questions regarding last year's performance on tour.
Granted, he completed the Tiger Slam of winning four consecutive majors with his victory at the Masters, but Woods was relatively quiet at the remaining three. This week is his first opportunity of 2002. If he's on or near the lead over the weekend, he could give ESPN-TV solid ratings.
True, the Mercedes is competing with football. But most of the NFL playoff spots are in place and the buzz of the national champion in football tomorrow will be a distant noise come Sunday if Woods is locked in a showdown with Duval, Love and Garcia.
"It should be a lot of fun," Woods said. "I always look forward to coming to Maui because you're competing against the best players from the year before. Hopefully, I'll be rested and ready to play on a tough golf course, especially if the wind is blowing."
Unlike 1999, when the winds laid low and Duval shot a record 72-hole total of 266. By comparison, Furyk's winning total last year in breezier conditions was 274.
"I love Maui," Furyk said. "I love coming here because even though the field is small, you're still competing against a lot of great players. And that's something to get excited about."
Hole Yardage Par 1 473 4 2 218 3 3 380 4 4 382 4 5 532 5 6 398 4 7 484 4 8 203 3 9 521 5 Out 35913 6 10 354 4 11 164 3 12 373 4 13 407 4 14 305 4 15 555 5 16 365 4 17 486 4 18 663 5 In 36723 7 Total 72637 3
THE TOP CONTENDERS
Sergio Garcia
Currently rated No. 6 in the world, the young Spaniard would like nothing better than to be a contender for this week's title. Garcia qualified for the winners-only event with victories at the Buick Classic and the MasterCard Colonial. But at this point in his career, Garcia is looking for quality wins. The Mercedes Championships would qualify.
Jim Furyk
The 2001 Mercedes Open winner, Furyk returns to Maui with a mixed bag. Granted, he is the defending champion, but it was his only victory on the PGA Tour last year. Still, he finished 13th on the money list with $2.54 million in earnings. The Florida resident is currently ranked No. 15 in the world.
Tiger Woods
Ranked No. 1 in the world, Woods is here on Maui for the fourth consecutive year. He won in 2000 with a dramatic sudden-death victory over Ernie Els, who is not at this week's Mercedes because he didn't win a PGA Tour event. No matter. Woods still has plenty of the game's best competing with him this week. A victory on Maui would be a great way to start the season for Woods.
Davis Love III
You can never count out a man like Love. He has the kind of length needed to traverse the long and hilly Plantation Course designed by Ben Crenshaw. Currently ranked fifth in the world, Love will not only compete at the Mercedes, but come over to Oahu for the Sony Open. Love won at Pebble Beach last year and has always done well in the island chain.
David Duval
Despite being ranked No. 3 in the world, Duval isn't nearly as hot a golfer as he was when he captured the 1999 Mercedes Championships. He shot a 72-hole total of 266, currently the tournament record. His only victory last year was at the British Open, but he could prove a formidable foe if he catches fire this week.
The PGA Tour will begin its season with the Mercedes Championships at Kapalua's Plantation Course. The event is for the PGA Tour's winners-only from 2001. $4 MILLION WILL BE OFFERED TO GAME'S BEST
What: Mercedes Championships
Who: Tournament winners from last season's PGA Tour
Where: The Plantation Course, Kapalua, Maui
Defending champion: Jim Furyk
Purse: $4 million
Winner's share: $720,000
Television: ESPN, Thursday, 3 p.m.; Friday, 2:30 p.m.; Saturday, 2:30 p.m.; Sunday, 11:30 a.m.
Tickets: Season pass (all week), $60; Daily tickets (Thursday or Friday), $15; Daily Tickets (Saturday or Sunday) $30. Tickets are available by phone, online and at various locations on Maui. For phone orders call Ticketmaster at 877-804-0472 or purchase tickets online at www.pgatour.com or www.ticketmaster.com
Charities: American Lung Association, Friends of the Children's Justice Center, Girl Scout Council of Hawaii, Hale Makua, J. Walter Cameron Center, Ka Lima O Maui, Lahainaluna High School Athletic Department, Maui Economic
Opportunity, Maui Junior Golf, Maui Memorial Medical Center Foundation and The Art School at Kapalua.
They have names. Some are of the local variety: Kapalua, Molokai, Lanai. Others belong to the sea: Drift, Cape, Humpback, Bay. The Plantation course will
be a challenge for the
elite field of 32By Paul Arnett
parnett@starbulletin.comWhen the winds lay low, golfers on the PGA Tour taking part in this week's Mercedes Championships call these 18 holes friend.
But should the tradewinds come a calling at Kapalua's Plantation Course, holes known as Easterly, Gorge, Long, Plateau take on a whole new meaning.
The opening hole is a 473-yard, par-4 that looks more imposing than anything else. Hit it straight and true, and you have a middle-iron shot into an inviting green. From there, you play holes of moderate difficulty. If the winds are gusting, the third hole's 380 yards from tee to green seem far indeed.
If you should trip here, the par-5 fifth offers you a chance to have a go at your second shot on the 532-yard hole that slopes from left to right. An eagle can be landed at this green, but get a little crazy and this hole can cause you some harm.
The seventh is the second of three long downhill par-4s. It's 484 yards, but is usually helped by a prevailing tradewind. The eighth is a par-3 across a huge gorge, while the ninth is, quite frankly, the most demanding hole on the course. It's 521 yards straight into the trades. You need three quality shots to have a chance to be standing on the green.
The back nine begins with a short par-4 in length (354 yards), but made difficult by playing into the wind and slightly uphill. Amazingly, the 11th is the last par-3 on the course. From the 12th on, golfers are treated to a variety of par-4s and two par-5s. Some are short, others long, but most are quite challenging coming down the stretch.
The par-5 15th is known as Switchback because of its double dog-leg. If you have the confidence to skirt the native canyon that borders the tee box on the right and the green on the left, you can walk away with a birdie here. But play tentative and trouble awaits.
The 17th is the last of the long par-4s.
At 486 yards, the hole they call Sunset has a downhill elevation change of 150 feet from tee to green. The view from the tee box is spectacular. It's the highest point of the Plantation Course.
But it would be hard-pressed to capture the intrigue of the par-5 18th that measures an astounding 663 yards.
Those who can hit two powerful blows, taking advantage of the wind and the slope, can reach the green in two. It usually lends itself to dramatic finishes.