Field of champions for MasterCard

Advertiser Staff

Maybe all you need to know about the MasterCard Championship, which opens the 2005 Champions Tour tomorrow on the Big Island, is a couple of tee times.

Fuzzy Zoeller will defend his title in the MasterCard Championship starting tomorrow on the Big Island. Advertiser library photo

The Merry Mex and The King were integral in bringing golf to the American masses before Tiger and Big Wiesy were even alive.

Player, from South Africa, is almost as well known for his prolific travel as his prolific talent. He has won more than 100 tournaments around the world, and flown some 19 million miles. His route to Kona started in South Africa, and stopped in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Ho-nolulu so he could work on golf course projects.

Irwin is apparently ageless. He won his 40th Champions Tour event last year at 59. Six have come in Hawai'i, as have three Senior Skins championships.

Next week on the North Shore he will go for what the 50-and-older tour is calling his fifth consecutive Turtle Bay Championship. Irwin actually won the first when it was called the Ka'anapali Classic and played on Maui.

This week's MasterCard field of 37 also includes Craig Stadler, the Champions 2004 Player of the Year, and Mark McNulty, the 2004 Rookie of the Year from Zimbabwe. Stadler tied for ninth last week at the Sony Open in Hawai'i. McNulty closed last season with wins in the last two tournaments.

Fuzzy Zoeller will defend his title at Hualalai. He birdied the last three holes to beat 2003 champion Dana Quigley by a shot.

The players in this year's MasterCard have won a combined 40 majors on the regular and Champions tours. Six golfers are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame — Palmer, Player, Trevino, Irwin, Tom Kite and Tom Watson.

Along with Stadler, Peter Jacobsen (T28) and Kite (T72) made the cut last week on the regular tour at Waialae Country Club. Dick Mast, who qualified for the Buick Invitational this week hours after flying in from Hawai'i, tied for 47th.

It was the first time since the 2000 U.S. Open that four Champions Tour players made a PGA Tour cut. Those four were Watson, Irwin, Kite and Hawai'i's Dave Eichelberger.

Yesterday at the Arnold Palmer Course, Kaua'i pro Dan Nishimoto shot 3-under-par 69 to win the Turtle Bay Resort Invitational Qualifier. Nishimoto, a member of the Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame, earned a spot in the Turtle Bay Championship over 12 other pros.

The spot was provided by Turtle Bay Resort. Pros who are Hawai'i residents over the age of 50 were eligible to play. All proceeds benefit the newly formed Aloha Section PGA Foundation.