The 2007 Champions Tour will open with the 24th MasterCard Championship at Hualalai Golf Course on the Big Island. A field of 38 has qualified, including defending champion Loren Roberts and former Hawai'i resident Scott Simpson.

The sponsor could invite as many as four more players, who must have at least 30 PGA Tour/Champions wins, or 15 wins and a major. Regular qualifiers are those who have won majors the past five years, or regular tournaments the past two.

The $1.7 million event will be played Jan. 19 to 21. Roberts won by a stroke over Don Pooley last year, with a score of 25-under-par 191.

Tickets are $25 for a week-long pass or $10 a day. They can be purchased by calling (800)-417-2770.

The tournament of champions has been at Hualalai since 1997. It will be shown on The Golf Channel live all three days.

The first full-field Champions event of the season, the Turtle Bay Championship, is the following week on O'ahu's North Shore. Roberts will also defend his title there.

CHAMPIONS SKINS GAME TEAMS SET

Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson will be partners again in the Wendy's Champions Skins Game, to be played Jan. 13 to 14 at Maui's Wailea Resort's Gold Course.

Other teams will be Arnold Palmer and Loren Roberts, Gary Player and Jay Haas, and defending champions Ray Floyd and Dana Quigley.

The teams will vie for $770,000 in skins at the alternate shot event.

The Skins Game switched to a team format this year with Floyd and Quigley winning $510,000. Nine holes are played each day.

The event will be televised on a same-day delayed basis on ESPN.

Ticket prices are $10 (for the Jan. 12 pro-am); $25 (for Jan. 13 tournament, nine holes); $25 (for Jan. 14 tournament, nine holes); or $50 for a three-day pass. Children 12 and under are free when accompanied by a ticket-buying adult.

Tickets will be available for purchase on Maui beginning tomorrow, or at the Wailea resort.

For more information, go to: www.championsskinswailea .com.

KONO REACHES SEMIS OF AJGA TOURNAMENT

Honolulu's Stephanie Kono fell in the semifinals of the 2006 Polo Golf Junior Classic to eventual champion Esther Choe on Saturday in Sea Island, Ga.

Kono, a Punahou School junior, fell to Choe, 2-and-1 in 21 holes. Choe went on to beat Cydney Clanton, 3-and-2 for the American Junior Golf Association title.

In the second round, Choe took out former Big Island resident, Kimberly Kim, 2-and-1.

WAIALAE TO MARK 42 YEARS OF PGA EVENT

In January, Waialae Country Club will celebrate its 42nd anniversary as the only official full-field PGA Tour event in Hawai'i.

The 2007 Sony Open in Hawai'i will be Jan. 11 to 14, following the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship at Kapalua on Maui

Gay Brewer won the inaugural tournament at Waialae in 1965, when it was called the Hawai'i International Invitational. The purse was $50,000 and Brewer took home $9,000. Last year, David Toms shot a tournament-record 61 in the third round and went on to win Sony's $918,000 first prize.

DWYER IN FINALE OF TV'S BIG BREAK VI

Bridget Dwyer of Kailua is all square after nine holes with Bri Vega in reality TV's Big Break VI on the Golf Channel.

Dwyer, a 26-year-old Punahou School alum, is a player on the women's Futures Tour.

The finale will air Tuesday on the Golf Channel.

The Big Break VI field started with nine men and nine women.

The women's champion gets an exemption into the SBS Open at Hawai'i's Turtle Bay Resort and Longs Drugs Challenge and waived entry fees for the Futures Tour season.

The men's winner receives exemptions into the Turtle Bay Championship, Bank of America Championship and waived entry fees in six events in the Hartland Players Senior Tour.

Denny Helper is 5-up on Jeff Mitchell after nine holes.