Golf tournaments can be cancelled and schedules tweaked. Happens all the time. It’s not just part of the current pro golf landscape; changes are the fabric of all sports.
It’s just that sometimes the moves are more personal than others. To wit, the decision to cancel the season-opening tournament at Kapalua on the Hawaiian island of Maui, which directly impacts in a negative way this week’s Sony Open over on Oahu.
Sad and disappointing. For many years my world was blessed beyond belief to start the new year in Hawaii – a week at Kapalua, a week in Honolulu – and while the pure selfishness of the “work assignments” cannot be denied (tropical warmth, ocean views, some rounds of golf) the greatest takeaway were friendships with people who represented the best of Hawaii.
The late and great Gary Planos, championship director extraordinaire, set a standard of hospitality that was warmer than an Hawaiian sun. My New England spirit never imagined finding UVM pride on Maui, but there was the most charming Catamount of them all, Karin Sagar, turning a cart barn into a charming media room.
What joy those many days across a multitude of tournaments at Kapalua’s long and daunting Plantation Course delivered. Molokai to your right, Lanai to your left, and while never could my skills distinguish between Trade and Kona winds, it mattered not in the least. Nancy Cross, a tournament ambassador with unmatched goodness, would remind me that it was all about the happiness beneath one sun and a good pair of sneakers to traverse the majestic ups and downs of this Coore & Crenshaw gem.
That the following week at the Sony Open represented a vastly different golf course – Waialae CC being flat and short where precision, not power, was required – but a similarly charming media host shined. The late Bill Bachran had a priceless institutional knowledge of a tournament that dated to 1965, but even more engaging were the stories he could tell of unspoiled Waikiki Beach from 50 years prior.
What never wavered, be it at Kapalua or Waialae, was the uncanny mana that you felt when Mark Rolfing and Mary Bea Porter-King graced the proceedings. Former professional golfers, each of them, they were born and raised on the mainland, but oh how they embraced island life and cherished all the greatness that is Hawaii.
Always, their advice and knowledge were sought; always, they delivered with insight and dignity.
The golf tournaments eventually got around to commanding my attention, of course, but what tickles my fancy at this sitting are two experiences of uniquely different complexions.
At the 2013 Hyundai Tournament of Champions, here was the wild week in a nutshell – Rickie Fowler had the honoring of starting the tournament on three different days. Confused? Well, we all were but the chaos of that year’s tournament was unlike anything natives had seen so imagine us visitors.
Fowler opened Friday’s first round, only it lasted two hours before 40-to-50-mile-per-hour gusts led officials to call things off. Brutal wind and rain postponed play on Saturday, then on Sunday Fowler again got things going and Mother Nature again forced a stop in play.
The nuttiness was everywhere. “At what point do you say enough is enough?” laughed Scott Stallings after he went to tap in a 2-foot putt only to see it get pushed 10 feet away by a gust of wind.
So impossible were the conditions that Ben Curtis was on in regulation at Nos. 1 and 2 – yet was 5-over.
Adding another layer of unforgettable zaniness, some colleagues and yours truly got in 18-hole rounds a couple of breezy but playable mornings at the Bay Course (which is at sea level), then traveled about 500 up the big hill to where the Plantation Course was deemed unplayable.
Go figure.
Then again, just savor the unusual experience of a 36-hole Monday and an 18-hole Tuesday finish that in most circumstances would have had every player, caddie, media member, and tournament official with frayed emotions. But enveloped by Kapalua’s warm Mahalo, smiles and perspective ruled.
Equally eclectic is the forever memory of a stroll at Waialae CC, a first-round, though the specific year escapes me. No matter, because the memory serves me well on my phone being involved; it was removed from my pocket to snap a photo of four coconut palm trees planted in a way so that they forged a large “W.” (The photo above explains perfectly.)
Watching me snap the photo from the right of the 16th fairway, a husband and wife explained that they, too, were in awe of the big W. “It reminds me of that movie,” said the gentleman and oh, the conversation that ignited. The golf-watching would have to take a break because we were about to engage in a discussion of an iconic movie, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”
Promptly we all agreed that it was perfect cinema.
Everyone who could make you laugh was in the movie – Phil Silvers, Jonathan Winters, Buddy Hackett, Sid Caesar, Jim Backus, Ethel Merman, Terry Thomas, Dick Shawn, Mickey Rooney, even The Three Stooges, for goodness sakes. The man and wife gushed about the cameo roles by Jimmy Durante and Jack Benny, we laughed about the great Spencer Tracy being the bad guy.
We had barely met, yet the movie was a great connection. Then came the man’s question about The Big W. In the movie it was somewhere in Southern California (Portuguese Point in Rancho Palos Verdes, to be exact) “so what’s it doing here?” he asked.
There was golf to catch up on, a walk to be resumed, and so our conversation came to an end. Another brilliant Hawaii encounter, for sure, but on those following Januarys whenever work brought me back to Waialae CC – and, yes, “work” is being used loosely here – my first walk was to The Big W and finally my curiosity prompted some research.
It seems a club member had also been enthralled by “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” and suggested replanting those coconut palm trees behind the 16th green in the form of The Big W. Members went along with it and while my guess is people think it represents the “W” in Waialae, some of us remember when $350,000 might have been buried there.
Taking creative license, that is.
It’s just all part of the rich experience that is a visit to Hawaii. Just a shame the PGA Tour doesn't feel similarly.
