With New Year’s — or whatever the PGA Tour now calls it — next week, the countdown begins in Hawaii. It has nothing to do with Times Square or fireworks. The golf ball drops here in January, with tour events the first three weeks.
How many of the tour’s 35 champions from 2013, which includes the opening events of the rebranded "2013-2014 season," will come to next week’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions at Kapalua Plantation?
A year ago, a dozen passed on an opportunity to spend a week on Maui at a tournament that paid $61,000 to the guy who finished last.
How many will island hop to Oahu for the Sony Open in Hawaii, Jan. 9-12 at Waialae Country Club? Last January, 20 from the TOC teed off in the first full-field (144 players) event of the year.
And will Fred Funk really be the only Champions Tour member to play both ends of the Sony Open/Mitsubishi Electric Championship doubleheader when the seniors start their season Jan. 17 on the Big Island?
Funk was under par at Waialae and missed the cut, then reeled off 16 top-25 Champions finishes, including a tie for 14th at Hualalai.
He has already made a provisional commitment to Sony for 2014 and is sponsored by Mitsubishi.
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HYUNDAI TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS
At Kapalua Plantation Course
>> What: First PGA Tour event of 2014, featuring the 2013 champions
>> When: Jan. 3-6, approximately 10:30 a.m. Friday and Sunday; 7:30 a.m. Saturday; 8:30 a.m. Monday
>> Pro-am: Jan. 2, 7 a.m.
>> Purse: $5.7 million ($1,140,000 first prize)
>> Defending champion: Dustin Johnson (wind-shortened 16-under 203)
>> Admission: Free Thursday, $45 for tournament pass, $20 daily Friday-Sunday. Military and dependents with valid Department of Defense ID free. Kids 18 and under free with ticketed adult.
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Then there is the 50-mph bonus question that cuts to the heart of having the start of the golf year in Hawaii:
After January’s legendary wind blasts knocked balls off tees and greens and mangled Kapalua’s schedule into a Monday start, what tropical weather will all those shivering viewers see on TV the next few weeks?
The answer to that is beyond that of even the tour’s control, but until 51 weeks ago, Kapalua hadn’t even had a round rained out since it began hosting the TOC in 1999.
Hyundai extended its original three-year contract through 2015 a few months ago. Mitsubishi is also signed up through 2015, and Sony recently extended four more years, through 2018.
Now, it is a matter of getting the golfers to sign on. This year’s proximity to New Year’s and the usual collection of major European events is sure to hurt fields the first two weeks.
Steve Stricker, the world’s eighth-ranked golfer, did not win this year and isn’t eligible for the TOC. He won it in 2012, hasn’t been outside the top 10 since 2007 and is 90-under par over his last 20 rounds at Kapalua.
Tiger Woods, the world’s No. 1, probably won’t be here either.
"I’m going to put my clubs away for a while to spend more time with my kids," Woods wrote in his blog Friday, "and support my girlfriend Lindsey Vonn as she tries to prepare for the Sochi Olympics."
Dustin Johnson will open defense of his Hyundai title next Friday on Maui. Australian Adam Scott, No. 2 in the world, is expected to play both weeks, along with seventh-ranked Matt Kuchar, ninth-ranked Zach Johnson and 15th-ranked Jason Dufner.
Sony has also received provisional commitments from defending champion Russell Henley and former champions Johnson Wagner, K.J. Choi, Paul Goydos and Jerry Kelly. Japanese idol Ryo Ishikawa is expected to play, as are Jonathan Byrd, Charles Howell III and Hideki Matsuyama.
State stroke play and senior stroke play champion Kirk Nelson, from Maui, earned the Aloha Section PGA exemption.
Manoa Cup winner Jared Sawada captured Hawaii’s amateur exemption in a 12-man playoff.
