When Angela Stanford won the SBS Open at Turtle Bay, she knew that the Seoul Broadcasting System probably wouldn't be back as title sponsor of the LPGA season opener. That relationship ended when the women's tour, which has never had a great sense of timing, announced during the event that it had signed a more lucrative contract for its television rights with another South Korean television company.

Stanford just hopes she'll have a tournament to defend next year. "Everybody wants to defend," said Stanford, who hopes the event will continue by whatever name. If it does, one thing's fairly certain: It won't be called the SBS Open, even if the LPGA returns to the Turtle Bay Resort, site of the event for the past five years.

But you have to wonder about the future of professional golf tournaments in Hawai'i as the "Aloha Season" is shrinking at an alarming rate.

"One year we had 12 professional golf events," said NBC golf analyst Mark Rolfing, who saw signs years ago that there would be such a shrinkage. There were eight in 2008, then six this year when the LPGA Fields Open and the Champions Tour's Turtle Bay Championship folded. Who knows what the number will be in the near future as contracts for both the Mercedes-Benz Championship and Sony Open in Hawai'i are up for renewal after 2010.

The future of the LPGA in Hawai'i is particularly bleak. The LPGA is cyclical, having come and gone over the years. Its latest absence, though, would be huge, considering Hawai'i's Michelle Wie is a card-carrying member and one of its future headliners. There is the LPGA Kapalua Classic in October, but it's still without a title sponsor. Who knows what its future will be with Maui Land & Pineapple Co., which owns the Kapalua Resort, reorganizing and down-sizing.

Once with three events here, the LPGA is looking for two title sponsors just in Hawai'i, and it won't be easy during the economic downturn. Nationally, it also has to replace Ginn Resorts, which pulled out of an LPGA event in Florida scheduled this April, and an event in Phoenix when Safeway pulled out. There's also no ADT Championship this year. So it won't be easy for the LPGA to find new sponsors.

"They (LPGA) say they'll make best efforts to replace this tournament," said Matt Hall, Turtle Bay Resort's director of golf, about the SBS Open. But he knows that saying "best efforts" only means you don't have a sponsor.

Don't blame Hall for being skeptical. For seven years, his resort went without a title sponsor for the Turtle Bay Championship despite repeated assurances by the PGA Tour that it would help find one. Finally, Turtle Bay had to say "no mas" to the Champions Tour event.

"(Golf) is a vehicle we use to promote Hawai'i, not only golf in Hawai'i but Hawai'i. When it goes away, it's hard to replace with something as substantial," said Hall, also disappointed about the timing of the LPGA's announcement about cutting its Korean television rights ties with SBS after 15 years.

It doesn't help that under the terms of the LPGA's new five-year agreement with JoongAng Broadcasting, the Korean cable television company will underwrite a tournament the next five years — in Southern California, not Hawai'i.

At least the prospect of the PGA Tour's continued presence here is brighter. Despite huge financial losses, Sony appears likely to continue as title sponsor of the PGA event at Waialae Country Club. Negotiations are ongoing, but those involved are optimistic.

"I would be surprised if it doesn't continue," said an official involved in the talks, which should be finalized by the end of April.

The Mercedes-Benz Championship also has a year left on its contract with the PGA Tour and Kapalua Resort.

"We're just waiting for the tour and Mercedes to know what will happen beyond 2010," said Kapalua's Gary Planos, the tournament chairman.

It's hard to imagine the PGA Tour giving up on Hawai'i as a place to start the season with back-to-back tournaments as long as Sony and Mercedes continue as title sponsors. But there were rumors that Mercedes wants out after next year, and they became louder murmurs when it signed a two-year deal to become the official car of the Northern Trust Open.

"You knew that couldn't be a good sign," said Rolfing. And guess who won the Northern Trust Open at the Riviera Country Club last week? Phil Mickelson, who has made it a point of not coming to the Plantation Course, where he has had little success in two appearances.

So unless title sponsors continue or new ones are found — a difficult prospect in these dreary economic times — all we can see is a slowly shrinking Aloha Golf Season.

Let's hope it doesn't come to the point when someone says: Will the last tournament standing please pull the flag and turn off the lights.