AROUND THE GREENS
Levi's win 20 years ago came in color of orange
By Bill Kwon
He's one of 6 former Hawaiian Open champs in Senior tourney at Turtle Bay
Has it been 20 years since Wayne Levi played an orange golf ball to win the United Airlines Hawaiian Open at the Waialae Country Club? It must be. He is now playing on the Senior PGA Tour as a first-year "rookie."
Levi is one of six previous Hawaiian Open champions playing in the 54-hole Turtle Bay Championship starting tomorrow at the resort's Palmer Course. The others are defending champion Hale Irwin, who won at Waialae in 1981, Isao Aoki (1983), Tom Shaw (1971), Howard Twitty (1993) and Hubert Green, who scored back-to-back victories in 1978-79.
Three other Hawaiian Open winners still active on the Senior Tour passed up Turtle Bay — Lee Trevino (1968), Ben Crenshaw (1976) and Bruce Lietzke (1977). Crenshaw felt five tournaments in a row would have been too much, Lietzke wanted to take three weeks off, while Trevino thought the trip wasn't worth it because there's no super seniors event this week.
Levi, though, jumped at the chance to play here again.
"I've always played well here. I'm looking forward to this week," Levi said. Besides his victory in 1982, he finished runner-up to Jack Renner after a two-hole playoff in 1984 and fourth in 1992, besides posting seven other top-20 finishes.
Few remember the playoff loss to Renner. Maybe because Levi wasn't using an orange ball by then.
"He (Renner) made a great birdie putt, about 25 feet, on the last hole to tie me," Levi recalled. "I missed a six-footer for my birdie and missed an even shorter one (it was two feet) in the playoff."
Getting his first Senior Tour victory in Hawai'i would make it great, according to Levi, whose best performance in seven top-10 finishes so far this year is a tie for fourth in the Farmers Charity Classic.
A 12-time winner on the regular PGA Tour, Levi gained an exempt status on the Senior Tour by being on the top-70 all-time money list with $1.58 million.
As a testimony (or should we say, testimoney) to the big bucks that those on the Senior Tour are playing for these days, Levi is more than a third of a way there in just 23 events since turning 50 on Feb. 22. His victory at Waialae in 1982 was worth $58,500. This week's top prize at Turtle Bay is $225,000.
No wonder the seniors call theirs the ATM Tour.
"It's really nice," the native New Yorker says. "You only play three days, there's no cut and it's nice money. How can you complain?"
It's also hassle-free, added Levi. There's no last-minute scramble for flights on Friday because there is no cut. "Now, everything's pretty much regimented."
And the Senior Tour ?s the best 401(k) pro golfers can have, according to Levi, who has always maintained an interest in the stock market, tracking its prices on his computers at home.
"It's unbelievable what has happened," Levi said about the beating some stocks have taken.
"The Internet is a great thing for everyone but a bad thing, too. The run in the development of all those dot-com companies led to the huge, catastrophic collapses," he said.
"With the stock market being so bad, I'm glad the Senior Tour came along."
While here, Levi hopes to get together with his long-time local caddy, Faxon Hanuna, a United flight attendant. "I'm sure he'll be coming by."
It was with Hanuna on his bag that Levi startled the world of golf by playing an orange-colored ball to win the 1982 Hawaiian Open with a 72-hole total of 277 for a one-stroke victory over Scott Simpson. It was the first time that a player won a tour event using a ball that wasn't white.
Why orange?
Twenty years later, Levi is still quick to answer.
"I was with Wilson at the time and they came out with an orange ball. Others also used it, but I was the only one to win with it. I got some notoriety from it," Levi said. "Every time the ball came rolling down the fairway, everyone knew it was Wayne Levi."
Interestingly, Levi's back again with Wilson after all these years, using its new "True Ball" brand.
"It's white, though," says Levi.
He did partner one better
Ed Kiyuna, former executive director of the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association, picked the right time for his first hole in one, getting it on Sept. 24 in the Hi-Cal Senior Classic, sponsored by the California Hotel. He used a pitching wedge to ace the 126-yard fifth hole at Angel Park's Palm Course in Las Vegas.
His scramble partner, Walter Ah Moy Jr., had hit his tee shot 14 inches from the hole and told Kiyuna he had to get a hole in one to beat it.
Kiyuna did just that.
Dan Izuka, who was Kiyuna's assistant coach when he was at Aiea High, played with another group, and tied Ah Moy for second at the hole, also at 14 inches.
Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net
