PGA NOTEBOOK
Galleries drop at Mercedes

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

KAPALUA, Maui — Scores in the Mercedes Championships were exceptionally low even without Tiger Woods, but his absence did have an impact on attendance. Early in the week, the drop was estimated at anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent off last year.

Ernie Els had a million reasons — as in the $1 million he won — to smile as he poses with the Mercedes Championship trophy. Els now turns his attention to the Sony Open in Hawai'i, which tees off Thursday. Associated Press

Organizers blamed the drop on Woods' absence and the later time slot. Last year's tournament ended Jan. 6 and, despite 9/11, Kapalua's hotels were extremely busy Christmas and New Year's.

"That was one difference," tournament director Nancy Cross said . "The only other thing we can attribute it to is Tiger."

The earlier date and Woods' absence took an obvious bite out of the number of kids at Kapalua. They were still out of school during last year's tournament. Even the Tuesday practice round, on New Year's Day, drew well. This year, school was in session, and Saturday's morning rain also gave attendance a hit.

"We had hundreds of kids everyday last year," Cross said. "This year, we just had the kids today pretty much."

Those who did come out apparently didn't miss Woods much.

"It kind of opens it up to see everybody else," said Margaret Villad, visiting from Salt Lake City. "There are a lot of new faces. Especially this year, there are so many guys ... I'm not kidding, I have no idea who they are. But with the crowd down, it's great for those who are attending."

Wailuku's Sid Medeiros, who works at Maui Lani Golf Course, said he was "a little bummed" Woods wasn't here, but never really followed him in previous years anyway because of the crowds.

"See all those people with Sergio," said Medeiros, waving at Garcia in the middle of the ninth fairway. "If that was Tiger, the line of people would go back to the tee."

Woods draws larger, louder and younger crowds than any other golfer. The largest galleries this year followed defending champion Garcia, who had about 200 with him yesterday, and the lead group of Ernie Els and K.J. Choi, who had about 500 with them early and added to that as the day went on.

Lahaina 17-year-olds Skye Catugal and Michael Okada, who have volunteered since Mercedes started here in 1999, said Woods' absence had as much impact on the atmosphere as the crowd.

"It loses a little intensity when he's not here," Okada said. "There always that certain feeling when he's around."

Next year's Mercedes Championships will be Jan. 8-11. The purse will go up $300,000, to $5.3 million.

Future dates are Jan. 6-9, 2005, and Jan. 5-8, 2006. The purse will be $5.5 million in 2005 and $5.8 million in the final year of the four-year contract, which was announced at last year's tournament.

• Sony next on tee: The fifth year of the Sony Open in Hawai'i begins this week with practice rounds today and tomorrow, the Pro-Am Wednesday and the 72-hole tournament Thursday-Sunday. All the players who finished in the Top 10 yesterday, with the exception of Rocco Mediate and Bob Estes, will be in the field.

Maybe Mediate, who was 18-under over the weekend, should stick around. He gave Hawai'i broadcaster Mark Rolfing a vivid description of what happens to golf courses, particularly in Hawai'i, when the wind doesn't blow. It describes Waialae Country Club as well as the Plantation.

"You can put us on the hardest golf course in the history of the world with no wind and we will destroy it, period, as a tour," Mediate said. "We'll kill it. That's what happened here."

SHORT PUTTS: Joe Durant set the previous record of 29-under for the first 72 holes of an event. That came in the 2001 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, a 90-hole tournament. Durant finished 36-under. ... An amateur team representing Continental Motorcars in Melbourne, Fla., won the Mercedes Dealer Championships National Final Friday at Kapalua. Members of the winning team were Rick Luzar, Jim Flagg, Jeff Henning and Dave Kubacki. ... More than 15,000 players participated in the tournament through 192 local and regional qualifiers. They raised $875,000 for the American Heart Association. The amateur event is the reason the Mercedes Championships has an "S" at the end of its name. ... Sergio Garcia could not defend his championship but he did go out with a bang, slam-dunking an eagle putt into the 72nd hole to finish at 71-281. ... Along with the PGA Tour 72-hole record, Ernie Els also broke David Duval's tournament record of 26-under, set in 1999. Els broke it on the sixth hole yesterday, then took his only bogey of the tournament (he had two double bogeys) on the next hole and broke it for good on the 12th hole.

Until yesterday, Duval was the only golfer to play the Plantation in 20-under par or better. This year, 11 players did it. ... Hawai'i had 13ý hours of TV coverage on ESPN the past four days to show the Mercedes Championships. But the coverage actually extended from 1:30 p.m. to midnight over The Golf Channel and ESPN. Yesterday, there was another hour as USA Network debuted its PGA Tour Sunday leading up to the tournament. ... Broadcaster Mark Rolfing, who lives in Kapalua, was making three appearances a day during the tournament on different shows. Yesterday, he made four. He also changed shirts another two or three times to film interviews for his Golf Hawai'i show. ... Jim Furyk's sixth-place finish was his fifth straight Top-10 finish at Kapalua. ... Of the 144 rounds played, only nine were over par. The average score in all four rounds was in the 60s for the first time.