Round 3: Hyundai Tournament of Champions
January 8 2012
9:21 pm
Finchem: Kapalua solid as host
KAPALUA, Hawaii — PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem said Sunday that he expects the Plantation Course at Kapalua to remain the host course for the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.
"I think everything is in good shape here," Finchem said.
Although several of last year’s winners are not in this week’s field, Finchem said factors ranging from injuries to family obligations to a late European Tour season were the reasons for their absences. He doesn’t agree that moving the tournament to the West Coast would entice more eligible players to participate.
"Of the 10 or 11 players … five of them were not able to play because they had a baby or they got hurt, so they are not going to play," Finchem said. "And to a European player who has played deep, deep into November and December, can make the trip, it’s not much difference to come from Europe. So I don’t see that as a significant factor."
The commissioner did say the structure of the tournament will be evaluated after this week in case there are any opportunities to get more players involved. But he stressed that he wouldn’t want to assume that changes will be made.
"It may be that we want to tinker with the structure of the tournament, and we’ll look at that," he said.
Overall, though, he is pleased with the tournament, calling the season opener "a pretty special week at a pretty special place."
"I know Hyundai is very pleased as a sponsor at this point," he said. "I think the telecast is superb, and most of the players that the fans are interested in, the young players coming up, are here."
And as far as having Hawaii as the backdrop?
"Visually this combination of HD television and now the aerial support that they have from a photography standpoint may be creating the best visual week that we have on the TOUR," Finchem said. "It’s really quite spectacular."
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here’s a guy with his head really in the sand.
tim, wake up.
Personally, I think this event should be dumped altogether. There are too many events on the TOUR schedule, and the season is already too long. An elite, world-class tour should never have a 28-man field.
the kapalua event should stay in hawaii NOT at the West Coast !
I am satisfied with the present filed of this event. We need more
American winners ! If the foreigners decide to saty home , fine with me !
So the golf media has missed their point, and I disagree with them.
So they should SHUT UP !
what was that 2012 pga winners scenario again?
tiger 4 wins
phil 2 wins
rory 3 wins
lee 2 wins
martin 2 wins
charl 2 wins
luke 2 wins
etc etc
2013 hyundai field
slocum (mexico winner), wi (puerto rico), stroud (mississippi)
crowd 15, owgr points 2
i just watched 30 minutes of round 3 on the tv, there looked to be more cameramen and photographers than spectators. this tournament is clearly in trouble, even tim finchem knows it.
this tournament should be open, call it the hyundai cla$$ic or whatever, thus giving 2 full fields to those WANTING to play in hawaii.
put the tournament of champions into the chevron timeslot or somewhere at end of season.
and please scrap that idiotic grand slam rubbish in bermuda before it is played between 4 alternates. in 2010, toms and els didn’t win a major but els was the winner with toms second. another alternate won in 2008 (furyk).
what was that 2012 pga winners scenario again?
tiger 4 wins
phil 2 wins
rory 3 wins
lee 2 wins
martin 2 wins
charl 2 wins
luke 2 wins
etc etc
2013 hyundai field
baird (mexico winner), wi (puerto rico), stroud (mississippi)
crowd 15, owgr points 2
i just watched 30 minutes of round 3 on the tv, there looked to be more cameramen and photographers than spectators. this tournament is clearly in trouble.
this tournament should be open, call it the hyundai open or whatever, thus giving 2 full fields to those WANTING to play in hawaii.
put the tournament of champions into the chevron timeslot or somewhere at end of season.
and please scrap that grand slam event in bermuda before it is played between 4 alternates. in 2010, toms and els didn’t win a major but els was the winner with toms second. another alternate won in 2008 (furyk).
11 of 38 qualifiers withdrew, including almost all the leading drawcards, so something is clearly wrong!
Perhaps this should be an end-of-season event to celebrate and reward the year’s winners, and maybe the runners-up as well. Call it the fedex cup.
Then the Tour could throw away its current, flawed, fedex cup that over-rewards or over-punishes most players.
Hey Mike, and admit that they got it wrong?
what are they going to do when, and it could happen, tiger rory phil and all the stars dominate a season.
the hyundai field could be a mini chevron with about 10 starters.
time to act, now.
if they want 2 events in hawaii then both must be open, not have 1 closed.
the first 2 events are ok in hawaii. all the nationwide grads and q school grads will play both. we get a chance to see the new kids on the block. that’s better than what we have now.
this is not rocket science.
finchem “and most of the players the fans are interested in ” seriously ???
Why not give each tournament event on Tour a player representative at Hyundai? Adopt a rule for only this tournament that requires a Tour event winner to commit by 2 weeks prior to Hyundai, rather than the regular 1 week commitment period. If the winner doesn’t commit, the position is offered to the second place finisher. Ties are determined by coin flip, card match or other “luck of the draw”. For multiple tournament winners, the first win qualifies the player. Upon winning the second event, the same procedure would apply, i.e. the position gets offered to the second place finisher. This would insure a field as large as the number of events on Tour.
The shirt was obviously a Xmas present from his wife. Or Boo and Woody.
I think Greg’s general idea is very good. Basically every tournament has a representative which would be good for a variety of reasons. Field size would increase, sponsrs would love it knowing that someone representing their tournament is participating. They could hi-light not only the player, but the tournament when featuring a player. A bonus would be to award the winners tournament an extra million to put in their purse to attract additional players!
“The Greg Plan” (every event has a representative at Kapalua) is a brilliant idea… and through the week on leaderboards and on TV the player is identified as such… Steve Stricker (Winner of Memorial Tournament)
Another idea would be to have 5 “at large” exemptions for players that generally had good years but didn’t win… and/or are big draws… Matt Kuchar, Rickie Fowler, Geoff Ogilvy etc.
this would get the field to 40 or so, and would bring more people to Hawaii and more eyeballs to HD TV’s.
One thing Fitch’ got right, this is (2nd only to Pebble on the one Sunny Sunday every 10 years) the most visually stunning broadcast of the year.
Invite winners from the Champions Tour to play in this event. It would provide a great opening for the season; and it would be a lot of fun to watch
I am an avid fan of PGA tournaments on TV. I watch a lot of them. I really look forward to this tournament the first week of January every year. I like to see the previous year’s winners, but more than that… I love to see the Kapalua Plantation Course (especially 17 and 18) on TV. Like Tim Finchem said, it is the most visually spectacular (on TV) tournament of the year. Augusta and Pebble Beach are 2nd and 3rd for me. I normally would like to see the “best” players (particularly Tiger, Mickelson, and some of the best Europeans) in every tournament I watch, but I have discovered that I really enjoy watching this tournament every year regardless of who’s playing (or who’s not playing). I love the spectacular camera views, the whales and surfers in the sea, and the spectacular beauty of Hawaii in early January. I would be VERY disappointed if the tournament is moved to CA or anywhere else.
after reading some of the suggestions here regarding this non-event, i must admit to being wrong.
it is rocket science.
I think that the exemption to this event should be two years to run the same time as the exemption you get for winning a tournament. That would make winning special & add qualifiers to the field at Kapalua. Win, win.
we have a few too many mini-fields as it is.
the fedex shrinks every week during the playoffs, the masters always has a smallish field, the matchplay is 64.
i don’t want to mention nedbank and chevron, even though they are unofficial events. but they still attract world ranking points.
what about the battling pros? they cannot play hyundai and then they have to sit it out during the fedex playoffs for 4 weeks.
the hyundai needs to be open, play the tournament of champions end of year.