GOLF BRIEFS
Champions Tour set to play at Turtle Bay

Advertiser Staff

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Turtle Bay Championship WHAT: Champions Tour event WHEN: Oct. 10 to 12 WHERE: Palmer Course at Turtle Bay (Par 36-36i72, 7,044 yards) PURSE: $1.5 million ($225,000 first prize) FIELD: 80 Senior PGA Tour players, including two-time defending champion Hale Irwin and Hilo's Steve Veriato, and the LPGA's Jan Stephenson, playing on a sponsor's exemption. PRO-AM: Oct. 8 and 9 QUALIFYING: Monday ADMISSION: $10 daily beginning next Friday. Children 17-under free with ticket-bearing adult. Parking, with shuttle service, is free. TV: The Golf Channel, 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day (tentatively)

Tom Kite has committed to play in the event, along with Tom Purtzer and D.A. Weibring. Kite and Purtzer are among the Top 20 on the money list. Weibring turned 50 in May and won his first senior event last month.

More than half the Top 30 players have committed to Turtle Bay, including Dana Quigley, Bob Gilder, John Jacobs, Allen Doyle and Jim Thorpe. Craig Stadler, who committed earlier, has dropped out.

Jan Stephenson, 52, will play on a sponsor's exemption. Stephenson, a 16-time winner on the LPGA tour, will become the first female to compete in an official Champions Tour event. Kathy Whitworth and Mickey Wright tied for 19th in the 1985 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, an unofficial event.

Stephenson will follow in the PGA Tour dress code steps of Annika Sorenstam, Suzy Whaley and Michelle Wie and wear long pants. The tour does not allow shorts or mention skirts.

Hale Irwin has won the first two Turtle Bay Championships. He defeated Gary McCord with a birdie on the first playoff hole last year. It was Irwin's first senior playoff victory after five losses. He has won nearly $3.3 million, and six tournaments, in Hawai'i.

The Champions Tour field expanded to 81 this year with the addition of a new PGA Tour Career Victory Category. There is no cut.

Turtle Bay is the 29th stop in 2003, with two official events to follow. There is no senior event this week. The Champions Tour is playing for $52.8 million this year.

Isobe on way to Stockholm

Hawai'i's Gerald Isobe finished fourth at the U.S. Deaf Golf Championships in North Carolina this summer, earning a spot on the U.S. Deaf Golf Team.

The six qualifiers will compete in the 2004 World Deaf Golf Championship in Stockholm, Sweden, next July. The international event started in 1996 and is held every other year. The U.S. won in 1996, '98 and 2000.

This will be Isobe's fourth appearance. Last year in Dublin, Ireland, Isobe captained the U.S. to a third-place finish behind Canada and Ireland. He finished 25th individually.

Isobe entered McKinley High's Hall of Honor in 1999 and the Rochester Institute of Technology Sports Hall of Fame in 2001. He is Punahou's junior varsity golf coach.