Golf Channel host Mark Rolfing (right) and analyst Paul Azinger (left) hug veteran ESPN sportscaster Chris Berman during the Sentry Tournament of Champions pro-am Wednesday at the Kapalua Plantation Course. Azinger, Rolfing and Dan Hicks are covering this week’s PGA Tour winners-only event from the tower on the 18th hole. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
Mark Rolfing’s golf life appears to have hit its zenith this week as the Sentry Tournament of Champions teed off at the Kapalua Plantation Course.
Rolfing is in the main booth for the Golf Channel and NBC with host Dan Hicks and analyst Paul Azinger. Hicks is handling the even-numbered holes, Rolfing the odds.
“It’s a big honor for me,” Rolfing said. “Usually when you’re at the stage of the career like mine you’re kind of being pushed out the door and they seem to be kind of embracing me and pulling me in even more.
“So, I’m just the luckiest guy in the world. I wake up every morning and I go, ‘Wait a minute, am I really doing this? Am I going to get up tomorrow morning and come up here and talk to millions of people for four hours about the game I love, in the place I live and love?’ I mean, I can’t even comprehend this stuff.”
It is all so special for Rolfing, a survivor of Stage 4 salivary gland cancer, a diagnosis he received in August 2015.
“It’s the first time I’ve been in a situation like this where Hicks and Rolfing are sharing, kind of, the holes,” Rolfing said. “It’s the first time I’m working with Paul (Azinger) in a situation like this. I have always loved him as an analyst, but had really no idea how good he was until working with him this last year.
“I worked with Johnny (Miller) for 25 years and just never thought anybody could go sit in that chair and be as good an analyst. Azinger is just brilliant — he’s not Johnny Miller, but he’s Paul Azinger. I think he’s brilliant. It’s going to be a fabulous week, I’m really looking forward to it.”
It is one of the biggest assignments Rolfing, the longtime Kapalua resident, has ever drawn.
“I’ve got a memory bank full of stuff from here, so I think that’s good,” Rolfing said Wednesday. “It’s still going to be different for me, there’s going to be a little pressure on me tomorrow I think. I’ve thought about it. For one thing, I’ve got 34 players, half of them I’ve probably never met until this week. I had to come up and introduce myself and really try to get to know these guys. … I’ve probably prepared more for this broadcast (Thursday) than I have for any one in a long time.”
It all coincides with Sentry Insurance’s blockbuster 10-year sponsorship extension announcement and the $10 million, nine-month renovation of the Plantation Course that is drawing rave reviews.
The traditional trade winds even blew into town, almost as if to tip their cap to the man who has to be credited most for the whole scene.
It was the Kapalua Open in 1982 and then the Kapalua International from 1983-97 — hosted by Rolfing — that showed the golf universe just what the Kapalua Resort property was all about. When the Plantation Course opened in 1992 it was only a matter of time before the first “silly season” event turned into the Tournament of Champions.
Before Sentry jumped in to save a sponsor-less event in 2017, the future for the TOC here was in serious doubt. Before the recent renovation under the eyes of original course architects Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, the views on television were less than spectacular.
Crenshaw credited Rolfing as the man who “hired us” to design the Plantation Course in 1990 before it opened in 1992.
Now, the event appears to have reached its highest point since it began here in 1999. I’ve covered each one of these events and there has never been more of a sense of overall confidence.
It has executive director Alex Urban running the whole show, stepping into the immense shoes of the late, great Gary Planos. It has sightlines that are making folks on the Mainland want to be here.
With a guarantee of being here through 2030 under the nearly unprecedented Sentry contract, it has staying power that few events on tour ever do. It has a Wisconsin-based title sponsor that has unbelievably immersed itself in the Valley Isle community to the point where it is hard to imagine life without their contributions.
The now 7,596-yard Plantation Course — the fourth-longest layout on the PGA Tour — is living up to its billing in the wind and rain that arrived Friday. The monster 677-yard finishing hole is the longest on tour and a perfect way for this kind of event to culminate.
Yeah, life at Kapalua this week is good. As good as it ever has been.
With the early start date — Wednesday’s pro-am was on New Year’s Day, for goodness sake — there are a couple guys who are not here who probably will be next year when the event will be played Jan. 7-10, most notably Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy.
Of course, there is the Tiger Woods factor, but with him being the captain of the U.S. team in the Presidents Cup just over two weeks ago in Melbourne, Australia, there was never much chance he would return to Maui for the first time since 2005. Last year, he came close to returning, but this year it honestly was never in doubt that he would not be here.
Azinger was asked if Hawaii was in the right spot on the PGA Tour calendar with this event and the Sony Open next week on Oahu.
“Only if the best players show up,” he said. “It’s hard if you’ve got a pocket full of money to leave Florida to come on out here for some of these guys. The golf courses are great. They’re a blast to play, but you’ve got to get the best players. It’s the start of the calendar year, so a lot of the better players should show up.”
Azinger’s final win on the PGA Tour came at the 2000 Sony Open at Waialae Country Club, which put him in the 2001 winners-only event here. He finished tied for 17th at 9-under-par 283. He nearly won the Kapalua International in 1985.
“With the FedEx Cup, this is the 12th tournament of the year,” Azinger said. “So you’re behind the eight ball if you’re not coming here to play. I don’t understand it. It’s the best way to start the year. I couldn’t wait for January to come and play here. But not everybody feels that way. But I certainly do.”
* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com
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