Hawaii’s laid-back golf life shifts into hyper drive over the next two months.
Next week’s Mauna Lani Resort Hawaii State Open jump-starts a tournament season that will bring in some of the game’s most familiar faces.
Less than month after Dean Wilson defends his State Open championship on the island of Hawaii, Patrick Reed will defend his Hyundai Tournament of Champions title on Maui.
So far, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry are the only 2015 winners expected to be no-shows at Kapalua Plantation. They won’t be missed in a field that could include Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Bubba Watson, Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Jim Furyk — all among the Top 10 in the World Golf Ranking.
British Open champ Zach Johnson and Davis Love III should also be back at a place where they have had success, as will Jimmy Walker. Last January he fell in a playoff with Reed at the Plantation, then took it out on the Sony Open in Hawaii field the next week, defending that title by a record winning margin of nine shots.
Walker will be back at Waialae Country Club Jan. 14-17 for the PGA Tour’s first full-field event of 2016. The purse is now $5.8 million, with the winner getting $1,044,000.
The following week, the Champions Tour opens its season with the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, which will end on Saturday (Jan. 23) for the first time. Miguel Angel Jimenez birdied six holes on the back nine last January to win the seniors’ TOC by one over Mark O’Meara.
Wilson, one of four Hawaii golfers to win a PGA Tour event, birdied the final hole on Mauna Lani’s North Course a month earlier to win his third State Open by one shot.
He is home this month, along with Parker McLachlin, Tadd Fujikawa, David Fink, Alex Ching, Nick Mason and Spencer Shishido, to play in their Open. The field of 165 also features amateurs Kyle Suppa and Jonathan Ota.
The senior flight has Hawaii Golf Hall of Famers Casey Nakama, David Ishii and Kevin Hayashi, along with tour players Dave Eichelberger, Steve Veriato and Scott Simpson. All but Eichelberger have won a state open. Simpson, the 1987 U.S. Open champion, has won it a record four times.
Alice Kim will make her pro debut in the Women’s Flight, which also includes 2013 champ Mari Chun, Kimberly Kim and Britney Yada, who — like Hayashi — will be less than a week removed from Q-School.
The Pro-Am is next Thursday, with the 54-hole tournament Friday-Sunday at the North and South Courses.
The State Open started in 1974 as a revival of the original Hawaiian Open. That tournament began in the 1920s and became a PGA Tour stop in 1965. Ishii is the only golfer to win the Hawaii State Open and Hawaiian Open.
The Hyundai TOC tees off Jan. 7 at Kapalua. Tickets are on sale at pgatour.com, and The Bay and Plantation Course golf shops. Beginning Dec. 15, tickets can also be purchased at Honolua Store and the Honokowai and Kihei (across from Kamaole Park I) ABC stores on Maui.
Kids 18-under, with a ticketed adult, are free, along with members of the military (active duty, retired, reserve) and dependents with valid military ID.
Golf begins at 10 a.m. for the first two rounds and 7:15 a.m. on the weekend.
McLachlin, Garrett Okamura and Shawn Lu will all play the Sony. McLachlin, who was 10th in the 2008 Sony, received a sponsor’s exemption. Okamura won the Aloha Section PGA’s exemption and Lu earned this year’s amateur spot.
Among those on the early provisional list for the Sony are former champions Jimmy Walker, Zach Johnson, Jerry Kelly, Johnson Wagner and Mark Wilson, along with Jim Furyk, Danny Lee, Steven Bowditch, Kevin Kisner, Scott Piercy, Brandt Snedeker, Tony Finau and Fred Funk.
Tickets are also available for the Sony, for $15 a day, at sonyopeninhawaii.com. At the gate, a day pass is $20 and a season badge $50.
