“You cannot put a price tag on somebody who is in the Midwest when it’s absolutely freezing or on the East Coast when it’s absolutely freezing and they see it and they want to come to Hawaii,” said James Kunane Tokioka, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.<\/p>\n
The Sony Open will transition next year to a PGA Tour Champions event for professional golfers 50 and older.<\/p>\n
“I would say name recognition wise it might just be comparable to what you saw when the PGA Tour was there,” said\u00a0Daniel Chopra, former PGA Tour golfer. “I cant imagine you’d get any less viewership, especially with boots on the ground people actually walking on the ground watching their favorite players coming back to Waialae.”<\/p>\n
The loss of the Sony Open was a huge blow for Hawaii, especially as the tourism industry struggles to compete for visitors. The Sentry golf tournament was also cancelled this year because of water shortages in Kapalua.<\/p>\n
“If we didn’t get this tournament, we may have lost the Mitsubishi, which will be the week after that because it’s so expensive to ship the equipment, the camera equipment, the camera crews and everything that comes along with the major golf tournament like this,” Tokioka said.<\/p>\n
Besides attracting thousands of spectators and marketing worldwide, the competitions are also a huge benefit to hundreds of Hawaii charities. Sony has contributed almost $30 million to local nonprofits over the past nearly three decades.<\/p>\n
“Having Hawaii as part of the PGA Tour, it is imperative because it is the bridge between Asia and the United States of America,” Chopra said. “You have such a huge expatriate populations from Korea\u00a0\u2014 South Korea\u00a0\u2014 and Japan that inhabit the islands of Hawaii and they are golf crazy.”<\/p>\n
And many are hoping this keeps the state’s foot in the door to keep PGA Tour tournaments here in the islands.<\/p>\n
“It would be a travesty if the PGA Tour didn’t have a presence in Hawaii,” he said. “And I really sincerely hope the PGA Tour will find a way to get a full PGA Tour event back in Hawaii in the next few years.”<\/p>\n
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