Advertiser Staff
Once Peter Jacobsen was the leader of a PGA Tour band called "Jake Trout and the Flounders" with Mark Lye, Larry Rinker and the late Payne Stewart.
But it has been more than a year since he has even picked up the guitar that used to be his constant companion on tour.
"I haven’t picked up my guitar since Payne Stewart died," Jacobsen said yesterday after shooting a 6-under-par 64 that is good enough for a second-place tie at 133.
"Since Payne died (in an airplane crash in November 1999), I haven’t even touched a guitar. I don’t even feel like it. Its very strange," Jacobsen said. "I spent nine to 10 years traveling around with my guitar week in and week out. I don’t have any explanation for (stopping) other than I still don’t think I’m over Payne’s death somewhere deep inside because he was such a close friend and we had so much fun doing the music. We weren’t any good at it, we just had fun doing it."
Golf instead of football
June Jones, golf pro?
Jacobsen, who grew up in Portland, Ore. competing against Jones in junior golf and still manages to play a few rounds each year with the University of Hawai‘i head football coach, said, "June is a two (handicap) and he very rarely plays today. If June played golf and stuck with it, I think he could have been on the tour.
"He’s a heckuva lot better than Michael Jordan, I’ll tell you that, and I’ve played with Michael."
Jacobsen added: "June used to kick my butt (in golf). June and his brother, Peter, used to challenge my brother, David, and I to matches."
Jacobsen said Jones, who was an all-star basketball and baseball player before going on to an NFL football career, was one of the best all-around athletes he has ever seen.
Said Jones: "We still get together to play once in a while. I walked the course with him at the Masters and Southern Open."
Expect a rowdy Ryder Cup
Brad Faxon would like to be selected for the U.S. Ryder Cup Golf team, but isn’t sure the showdown with the European Team will be a pretty one to watch after what took place at Brookline, Mass.
"I think there is going to be a lot of stuff happening," Faxon said. "I think it will unfortunately end up ugly. I think there will be a few things happening that we don’t want to happen. I think it will stem from the gallery."
The U.S. team bolting out onto the green to celebrate the 1999 triumph won’t be forgotten by the Europeans, Faxon said. "I have a feeling the Ryder Cup crowd (in Midlands, England) is going to be more soccerlike," Faxon said. "It is not going to be as pleasant as it could be."
Hawai‘i players miss cut
The minimum number of 70 players made the cut, which came at 1-under-par 139 — a shot lower than last year. That left all of Hawai‘i’s players home for the weekend.
David Ishii shot a second straight 73 to miss his first cut here since before he won the 1990 Hawaiian Open.
"I played OK," Ishii said. "I just made some silly mistakes."
Hawai‘i amateurs Brandan Kop (76-153) and Tommy Kim (79-159) also missed the cut, along with Aloha Section PGA Player of the Year Brian Sasada (78-148), Kapalua pro Douglas Bohn (73-151) and Hapuna pro Matthew Hall (77-151).
Former Kailua resident Scott Simpson’s second competitive round in more than a year was much more successful than his first. Simpson, who won Tuesday’s Johnny Bellinger Shoot-Out, was even par yesterday after opening with an 80.
Simpson missed all last year with a broken ankle that he suffered skiing.
Defending champion Paul Azinger missed the cut by three shots, finishing 70-142.
Wai‘alae goes high-tech
Pat and Vanna are here. So are Hall and Oates. Also HD and TV.
Sony Corporation’s entertainment clout annually brings big names and hi-tech toys to Wai‘alae Country Club. This year, for the first time, television viewers will see a "unified production" in both high definition and conventional analog broadcasting.
The HDTV live broadcast will be today and tomorrow on CBS.
Sony claims those who have the "theaterlike horizontal presentation and spectacular image resolution" of HDTV will feel as if they are "right on the course with the players."
Tuesday, the second annual Sony Open Forum was hosted by Sony Chairman and CEO Nobuyuki Idei. More than 20 senior executives, technology leaders and new media from the United States and Japan attended. Topics were "The Future of the Media in the Internet Era" and "Dominant Trends in the E-Commerce Revolution."
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