GOLF REPORT
Aloha Section PGA pros lose two Sony Open spots
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By Bill Kwon
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Suddenly, there's only one spot instead of three for Aloha Section PGA club professionals beginning with next year's Sony Open in Hawai'i. The local sectional qualifying for the two extra spots has been held every December at the Waialae Country Club.
After complaints about limited-field tournaments by its general membership, the PGA Tour reached an agreement with the PGA of America to eliminate two spots from local sectional qualifying, opening them up for players not on the tour's fully exempt list.
Local section champions will still play in PGA Tour events in their regions under the agreement in which the PGA of America will receive $850,000. In taking back those spots, PGA of America pros will have access to Nationwide and Champion Tour events.
The news has already impacted the Aloha Section PGA, sending its president Matt Hall on an island-hopping swing to poll its members about how to determine who will get the one spot for the 2008 Sony Open.
"It's unfortunate. Obviously, for section members, one of the things we covet the most is playing in a PGA Tour event," Hall said. "All of us look forward to it. And it's one of the benefits of being a section member. At least we still have one spot."
Paul Sugimoto, the section's executive secretary, has heard from several members. "They don't like it but it was something done on the national level," he said.
Sugimoto realizes, though, why it was done. "Tour players are having less and less opportunities to play with limited-field tournaments and the FedEx Cup."
The Aloha Section's Player of the Year, based on performance points in designated tournaments, has received an automatic exemption in previous years. But it might be different, now that it's only one spot.
Three possibilities for the one exemption are being considered, according to Hall:
Kevin Hayashi was an easy choice last year. He won both player-of-the-year honors and the stroke-play championship.
Based on the general consensus he gets from section members on O'ahu, Kaua'i, Maui and the Big Island, Hall will make his recommendation to the nine-person ASPGA board, which will make a final decision at its April 30 meeting.
"We can do it however we like," said Hall, adding that the money the national association will receive will help defray expenses for the section's stroke-play championship, which doesn't have a title sponsor this year.
The one good news is that the decision will have no impact on the Governor's Cup qualifying among the 12 amateurs making the team. They will still play for the one amateur spot in the Sony Open.
"That doesn't affect us," said Tony Guerrero, president of the Friends of Hawai'i Charity, which gets the exemption from the tournament's title sponsor.
"That's different. That's not going away. We want to keep the Governor's Cup tradition."
Guerrero noted that it's not only traditional, observing the memory of the late John A. Burns, for which the event is named, and a young local youngster named Tadd Fujikawa has made it even more difficult to do away with the amateur exemption.
"Tadd saved us this year," Guerrero said about the 15-year-old who stole the Sony Show by becoming the youngest player to make the cut in a PGA Tour event in 50 years. Fujikawa was also the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Open the year before.
Will Fujikawa get a sponsor's exemption for the 2008 Sony Open if he doesn't win the Governor's Cup amateur qualifying again?
"He's proven what he can do. We'd be crazy not to," Guerrero said.
The possibility of two amateurs and, most definitely, taking away two club professionals in the Sony Open field next year?
I guess you win some and lose some.
