Sony renewed through 2006

By Ferd Lewis and Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writers

Gov. Ben Cayetano and PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said they expect Tiger Woods to play in the Sony Open in Hawai'i sometime during the four-year extension that was announced yesterday.

Gov. Ben Cayetano and PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem at the Sony Open's extension announcement. Associated Press

"I think Tiger is moving his schedule around an event or two every year," Finchem said. "So eventually I see him playing pretty much everything on the tour. Tiger's 26 now. By the time he's 30 I'd say he'll have played the vast majority of tournaments on the tour. So it's not unreasonable to assume he might play here in the next four years."

Finchem called the Sony Open in Hawai'i "the most improved event on the PGA Tour in the last three years." Sony Corporation has been the event's title sponsor since 1999. Since then, prize money has more than tripled, to $4 million this year. It is projected to go up incrementally — $4.5 million, $4.8 million, $5 million — to $5.5 million in 2006.

Charitable contributions, through the Friends of Hawai'i Charities, have averaged $500,000 annually thanks to matching partner The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Inc. The year before Sony took over, contributions were a little more than $100,000, one of the lowest figures on tour.

Finchem also said the Sony Open has showed "spectacular growth" in its television ratings. Sony Chairman and CEO Nobuyuki Idei confirmed that, calling O'ahu "a small island with a huge audience all over the world." Cayetano estimated the Sony Open brought 50,000 people into the state each year, and put its economic impact at $25 million.

The tournament is shown live and on tape delay in Japan and in prime time on ESPN. Finchem said it will remain on ESPN the next four years, along with the Mercedes Championships, which opens the tour season on Maui. That event announced a four-year extension Jan. 4. Sponsorships are tied to the new four-year TV deal the tour signed last fall.

Finchem called the quality of the tournament field "much greater" since Sony took it over. Much of that is due to the tournament's position the week after the Mercedes Championships, which brings in the winners from the previous year. Nearly two-thirds of the Mercedes field remained in the state this year to play in the Sony.

Still, Woods has never played at Waialae, for 37 years the site of the tour's only official full-field PGA Tour event. Finchem admitted improvements must continue to keep the tournament viable.

"Staging and the look and feel of the tournament is more on the level of PGA Tour quality now," Finchem said. "Field quality can always improve. It is very, very good now, but it can get better. Purse levels can increase here. The golf course is very good now. There are a few things we can do to make it little better. Those things play into a bigger television audience."

Finchem said Waialae's practice facility, which many feel causes Woods' absence, is of "some concern." Now that the tournament is set in Kahala stone for the next four years, the tour will do a "comprehensive strategy review," to help the event make improvements.

"If Waialae could do something about (the space), I think that would really help," Cayetano said. "It is confined by its space and that is clearly one of the problems."

The tour will also tweak Mercedes' Plantation Course. Finchem specifically mentioned the difficulties kona winds created last week.

"We have a great field quality on Maui," Finchem said. "The sponsor experience is exceptional. Television has been very, very strong. We always would like to see the weather cooperate, but that's something out of our control and it actually adds a dimension of interest. I think we're in pretty good shape on Maui."

Future Sony Open dates are Jan. 16-19, 2003; Jan. 15-18, 2004; Jan. 13-16, 2005; and Jan. 12-15, 2006.