KAILUA-KONA – The battle for the makau hook trophy is set to get underway once more.
The Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai is back on the Big Island, teeing off for the 26th year in a row at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai. This year’s field of 42 golfers – with six World Golf Hall of Fame members – will tee off on Thursday morning to kick off the PGA Tour Champions season.
Awaiting a star-studded field that includes last year’s winner Darren Clarke, two-time champion Miguel Angel Jimenez and 2020-21 PGA Tour Champions Player of the Year Bernhard Langer is a revamped par 72 Jack Nicklaus-designed course with the potential to see an abundance of low scores.
“It’s just a jewel out here; it’s amazing,” said tournament manager Kelly Fliear of the 7,107-yard course at Hualalai. “The fairways are wider; the fairway rough cuts go higher behind the greens.
“Players are going to be able to bomb it off the tee, and you’re going to have some holes that they will be able to use the slopes behind the greens kind of as a backstop… It’s really wide open, and it already was wide open. We’re excited to see a lot of birdies and eagles and a lot of scoring as we launch our season.”
“It’s exciting to be back at Hualalai; it’s one of my favorite tournaments really…” added Langer on Wednesday. “Especially for the first event of the year, you get to practice in perfect conditions, very little wind and sunshine and the whole deal, so it’s beautiful.”
After a one-year hiatus, fans will be welcomed back, though in limited numbers with temperature checks and mandatory masking in shuttles and indoor areas.
“It means a lot to the players,” said Fliear when asked about having fans back. “It really inspires them when they can hear the crowd, hear the applause, interact with the crowd, which our players are so good at. I think that’s part of our PGA Tour Champions profile.”
Event tickets will only be available at the admissions gate at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai. After spectators have parked, shuttles will transport them directly to the admissions gate.
“We’re all going to do our best to make sure it’s safe for everyone…” added Fliear, noting that the tournament has taken cues from the Tournament of Champions at Kapalua and the Sony Open on Oahu, as well as from tournaments on the mainland. “We believe we can do it safely.”
On the course, Clarke will look to become the first back-to-back winner of the tournament in the 26 years it has been held at Hualalai. Clarke held off Retief Goosen and Jerry Kelly to claim the makau hook trophy a year ago, recording six birdies on the final nine holes en route to a final-round score of 64.
Newcomers hoping to earn a win in their Hualalai debuts include former world No. 1 David Duval as well as Germany’s Alex Cejka and New Zealand’s Steven Alker, who each enter 2022 on hot streaks. Alker has recorded nine top-10 finishes in just 10 PGA Tour Champions starts, while Cejka was the only player on the PGA Tour Champions to win multiple majors in 2021.
“Really looking forward to what the PGA Tour Champions presents, the opportunity it gives us as players,” Duval said on Wednesday. “There’s some nervousness and some excitement… because I haven’t competed consistently for a very long time, but the opportunity to do that is just putting a smile on my face.”
The trio of Michael Allen, Fred Funk and Mark Calcavecchia will tee off on Thursday at 10:10 a.m. to begin the first of three rounds. The final group of Clarke, Langer and Jimenez are scheduled to tee off at 12:33 p.m. TV coverage will start at 2 p.m. on The Golf Channel.