Posted by Jason Sobel
LAHAINA, Hawaii -- If you've read any of our coverage this week ... or tuned into The Golf Channel ... or paid attention to anything golf, then you've probably heard the news:
Tiger Woods and
Phil Mickelson (as well as
Retief Goosen and
Padraig Harrington) aren't competing at the season-opening Mercedes Championships.
To the casual fan (and even the diehards), it might come as a shock that golf's two most popular figures chose to stay away from Kapalua.
But I recently spoke with one PGA Tour veteran (who isn't here this week) and he said it was no surprise that both players skipped the event. The long flight, the unpredictable weather patterns (yes, even in Maui there is plenty of rain and some pretty breezy tradewinds) and, most importantly, the condition of the Plantation Course all contributed to these players' no-show.
In particular, this player told me, the course's greens were never in any condition to host a PGA Tour event, let alone one with such prestige as the Mercedes. That has all changed, however. The course was shut down for part of last year, during which time the greens were entirely redone. The result? Nothing but high praise from this week's field.
"The putting green looks great," Stuart Appleby said on Tuesday, before he had seen the entire course. "They look like a better selection of grass to have on the course. I think it was a good change. The greens weren't great greens here. ... I know what they're trying to do, and it was the right thing to do."
Woods and Mickelson will have to show up next year to see for themselves.
Helping out the pro-am: One of the best things about covering a tournament like the Mercedes (or the season-ending Tour Championship) is that full days of golf don't necessarily take all day. Unlike a regular PGA Tour event, tee times at Kapalua don't start at the crack of dawn. Instead, 14 twosomes will tee off, starting at 11:10 a.m. local time Thursday, with the final pairing walking off the 18th green sometime around 6 p.m.
That just leaves one problem for tournament directors. With plenty of celebrities and CEO types willing to pay good money for a spot in Wednesday's pro-am, there simply aren't enough pros to fill the pro-am field.
Enter the likes of Billy Andrade.
The Rhode Island native helped out the tournament, playing in the pro-am along with fellow noncompetitors Doug Tewell, John Cook, Rory Sabbatini, Ryan Moore and Bill Kratzert, giving the Mercedes six extra pro-am entries (meaning 24 more large checks from those who bought spots in the event).
So how does that happen? I ran into Andrade on Tuesday and he said it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time and willing to help out the tournament officials. Andrade and his family spent the Christmas holiday in Maui and will remain here until the end of the week. When officials asked if he would play in the pro-am, he told them he'd be happy to help out.
Srixon jumps into the fray: For most golf fans and consumers, Srixon has simply been a funny-sounding company that produced reasonably priced products and reasonable on-course results over the years. With its recent signing of Jim Furyk, currently the No. 7 player in the world, the company showed that it's ready, willing -- and, quite possibly, able -- to compete with the power elite of the golf industry.
While companies like Titleist, Callaway, Nike, TaylorMade and Ping continue to set the standard, Srixon is now jumping into the deep end of the pool with the big boys. Furyk joins a formidable tour staff that includes Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman, Tim Clark, Robert Allenby and Tim Petrovic on the PGA Tour (as well as LPGA players Karrie Webb and Laura Davies, and Miguel Angel Jimenez of the European Tour, among others).
"I'll be honest with you, 18 months ago I knew zero about Srixon golf," Furyk said Tuesday at a press conference, echoing the sentiments of many consumers. He was enticed to make the switch to Srixon after a former tour rep for Ben Hogan (the company with whom Furyk had a previous deal) made a similar move one year earlier.
Srixon's tour staffers contend the company's new ball flies straight and long -- but of course, would they say anything less? -- though Petrovic may already be the year's clubhouse leader in rhetoric, stating, "My greatest moment in 2005 wasn't when I won a tournament [his first career victory came at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans], but when I signed with Srixon."
