SONY OPEN NOTEBOOK
Rain not among Pro Am's perks

Advertiser Staff

Michelle Wie and caddy Bobby Verwey had to weather a two-hour wait yesterday before getting on the greens at Waialae. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

It dodged 40-mph winds and rain squalls. The sun's entrance was beyond fashionably late. The temperature never reached 80 degrees. The afternoon wave was delayed 2 hours and the 18-hole tournament was ultimately cut to nine holes.

For all this, amateurs paid anywhere from $9,000 for the basic Silver Sponsorship package to $43,000 for a Platinum sponsorship with four Pro-Am entries.

Along with the Pro-Am, the Platinum package also includes eight spectator badges good for the week, four practice rounds, a group photo with the pro, and eight invitations to both the Sony Open Draw Party and the Awards Celebration.

There is entry into the Ted Makalena hospitality pavilion, 150 any-day tickets, 30 entries for the "Million Dollar Shot" contest, a full-page, four-color advertisement in the official tournament program and company identification on the Tournament Sponsor Board.

And, maybe most valuable, four preferred parking spots.

The $9,000 Silver Package is a scaled-down version with one Pro-Am slot and fewer invitations and tickets. There are 50 general admission passes and 10 "Million Dollar Shot" entries, a place on the sponsor board and one parking place.

All Pro-Am entrants received "tee-gift packages." This year, that was a Sony portable DVD player, $100 Macy's gift certificate, Cutter & Buck and Tommy Bahamas shirts, Tumi Bag with Sony Open logo, Pro-Am photo plaque, Stuart Kern Alligator Skin Belt, a dozen Titleist Pro VIx balls with logo, Sony cap and nuts, candy and coffee.

Oh yeah. Also a rain jacket.

LONG PUTTS: "Saturday Night Live" alum Adam Sandler, star of the golf movie "Happy Gilmore," played in the Pro-Am. ... Brett Ogle, the 1994 Hawaiian Open champion, resigned his PGA Tour membership last year. He is living back home in Australia where he plays in corporate outings and is a golf analyst. ... When South African Ernie Els won at Waialae last year, he became the first international player to win here since Ogle. Els beat Australia's Aaron Baddeley in a playoff, giving the Hawaiian Open/Sony Open its first 1-2 international finish in the 38-year history. ... Baddeley was out nearly three months last year after injuring his ankle playing Ultimate Frisbee. He had two more Top-10 finishes and was 73rd on the money list with $989,168. He won $486,000 here. ... Bobby KalinowskI, a Monday qualifier from the Nationwide Tour, was here for his honeymoon. His wife had to return to the Mainland Tuesday to go back to work. ...

Mike Weir is the only winner of a 2003 major that is not at the Sony Open. U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk, who won the 1996 Hawaiian Open, tees off at 12:12 p.m. today. British Open winner Shaun Micheel starts at 12:39 and PGA Championship winner Ben Curtis at 8:14 a.m. ... Jerry Kelly's first tour victory was the 2002 Sony Open. He has finished in the Top 30 the last four Sonys, with three Top 10s — fourth last year, his victory, and ninth in 2000. In that time, Kelly has 13 rounds in the 60s and just one over par. ... Last year, Friends of Hawai'i Charities — through the Sony Open — distributed a tournament-record $800,000 to not-for-profit organizations. Since the tournament began in 1999, more than $3 million has been raised. That includes the money matched by charity partner Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Inc. ... Sony Open's ninth hole, a 510-yard par-5, turned out to be the easiest hole on the PGA Tour last year. It played to an average score of 4.2. The tour had 48 tournaments on 56 courses last year. There were 1,008 holes played. ... There were 95 players in Monday's qualifying round at Pearl Country Club. The breakdown was 28 from the Mainland, 27 from Hawai'i, 22 from Japan, 10 off the Nationwide Tour, six from the PGA Tour and two from Korea, including low qualifier Myung Jun Park, who shot 64. ... Hawai'i's Tommy Kim is caddying for Park.

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Mercedes champion Stuart Appleby, putting a golfer's progression — specifically Michelle Wie's progression — into big-wave terms:

"You can't just go: I'm going to go surf a 40-foot wave today because I've surfed a couple 10-footers in my life. I'm going straight to 40. You've got to get dumped a few times and understand what that's like from the 20-footers. You've got to learn a lot."