Seniors seek big pay day at MasterCard Championship

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Champions Tour golf goes beyond the PGA Tour slogan of "These Guys are Good."

These guys are also old. As the senior tour opens its 25th season this morning with the MasterCard Championship, Arnold Palmer will celebrate his 50th year as a pro. Jack Nicklaus just turned 64.

These guys are also getting rich. A field of 39 plays for $1.6 million at Hualalai Golf Club on the Big Island. The total of this year's 34 purses is $52.7 million. In 1980, they were playing four events for $475,000.

These guys are also playing here just twice this year. Palmer, Nicklaus, 2003 Player of the Year Tom Watson and Lee Trevino will be on Maui next Friday and Saturday for the Wendy's Champions Skins Game. But the Turtle Bay Championship is not on the 2004 schedule.

The tour hopes to move the full-field event from the fall, where it was played the past three years, to the week after MasterCard.

George even had the dates down. The Mercedes Championships will be Jan. 6 to 9 next year, followed by Sony Open in Hawai'i Jan. 13 to 16. George envisions MasterCard the following weekend (Jan. 21 to 23) and Turtle Bay Jan. 28 to 30. He even offered the possibility of moving Champions Skins to the Monday and Tuesday after Turtle Bay.

"We think that's an improvement," George said. "There are a lot of positives about doing that. I think it makes sense. It will really improve the fields we have at Turtle Bay. ... We feel very strongly that starting both the PGA and Champions Tours with four Hawai'i events makes great sense."

Hale Irwin agrees. He became the first Champions Tour player to capture the same event four consecutive times, and the first to win an event five times, when he won at Turtle Bay in October.

The 50-older tour has some other changes this year:

• Qualifying school will expand from four to six rounds.

• The tour has implemented a transitional change in the cart policy. There will be no carts allowed at the majors, Charles Schwab Cup Championship and new First Tee Open at Pebble Beach. There will be no carts at any senior event in 2005, unless course design or weather dictates it, or a player is disabled.

"It was a difficult decision because probably 30 percent of our players want carts and 30 percent don't, and 40 percent are right in the middle," George said. "We felt we had to do what's right for our tour. ... We want to evolve as a fan-friendly tour. When we're all walking, fans have closer access."

• Full-field events will return to 78 players, after allowing 81 last year. Only two players, instead of four, will qualify Monday. Seven players will earn fully exempt status at Q-School instead of eight.

SHORT PUTTS: Next week's Wendy's Champions Skins Game, at Wailea's Gold Course, has changed its starting times. The Pro-Am Friday and Saturday (Jan. 30-31) will tee off an hour later, at 10 a.m. The skins game, with Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and defending champion Lee Trevino, starts at approximately 1:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday. ... Punahou freshman Michelle Wie is playing in the Saturday Pro-Am at Wailea. ... With the addition of Sam Torrance (Scotland), Hajime Meshiai (Japan), Mark McNulty (Zimbabwe), Mark James (England) and Rafael Navarro (Brazil), the tour has players from 13 countries.

Today's tee times

11:09 a.m.—J.C. Snead.
11:18 a.m.—Isao Aoki, Don Pooley.
11:27 a.m.—Jim Ahern, Stewart Ginn.
11:36 a.m.—James Mason , Sammy Rachels.
11:45 a.m.—Dave Eichelberger, David Eger.
11:54 a.m.—Jay Sigel, Vicente Fernandez.
12:03 p.m.—Morris Hatalsky, Graham Marsh.
12:12 p.m.—Dave Barr, Wayne Levi.
12:21 p.m.—Allen Doyle, Tom Jenkins.
12:30 p.m.—Tom Purtzer, Rodger Davis.
12:39 p.m.—Jim Thorpe, Bod Gilder.
12:48 p.m.—Larry Nelson, Tom Kite.
12:57 p.m.—Bruce Lietzke, John Jacobs.
1:06 p.m.—Gary Player, Hubert Green.
1:15 p.m.—Arnold Palmer, Bruce Fleisher.
1:24 p.m.—Tom Watson, Gil Morgan.
1:33 p.m.—Hale Irwin, Lee Trevino.
1:42 p.m.—Jack Nicklaus, Dana Quigley.
1:51 p.m.—Craig Stadler, Doug Tewell.
2 p.m.—D.A. Weibring, Fuzzy Zoeller.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043.