LMKI Tournament History
Its difficult to imagine a time when the PGA TOUR
schedule didnt run from January to December, but it
wasnt long ago when the heart of the televised golf season
ended in late August and there was no PGA TOUR golf in the final
two months of the year.
Then along came Mark Rolfing and the Kapalua resort on Maui.
Their idea for a post-season stroke-play championship eventually
helped change the face of professional golf in America. Kapalua
gave rise to what is now known as the "Second Season"
on the PGA TOUR.
Kapalua's reputation for great performances dates back to its
first tournament in 1982, then called the Kapalua Open. Hawaii
native David Ishii shot three rounds under par on The Bay Course
and beat a stellar field for the title and first place check of
$15,000. USA Network televised a 30 minute highlight show of that
first championship, which featured well known players such as
Hale Irwin, John Mahaffey, Craig Stadler, Ben Crenshaw and Curtis
Strange.
"That was a great start for us," said Rolfing, the
accomplished ABC golf reporter who was Kapalua's marketing
director at the time and now serves as tournament chairman.
"People had to sit up and take notice."
Which was precisely the reason the tournament was started - to
bring more attention to the Maui island resort. But prior to that
first competition doubt abounded over whether a late season golf
event could be successful. The PGA TOUR gave its blessing - but
not its backing - to go ahead with the event.
"The thinking at the TOUR, as I remember it, 'You can go
ahead and put on a tournament, but who's going to play in it? And
who's going to televise it?'," Rolfing recalls. "They
said it was too late in the year, but if we wanted to try it, we
were welcome to do so. No one expected to us to find a television
partner. In 1982, we were just having to test to see if we could
do it." Kapalua found out it could be done - and with
aplomb.
Just one year later ESPN televised the final three rounds of the
tournament live in prime time. The purse grew to $300,000 with
$100,000 going to the winner, a then obscure Australian player
named Greg Norman. Since then, the Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua
International has continued to grow, boasting a purse of $1.2
million, four days of live coverage on ESPN and ABC-TV and some
of the game's best players.
The success of Kapalua's 1983 tournament (and a first year
made-for-TV event called The Skins Game) inspired the TOUR to
reassess the viability of late season golf properties. "The
prevailing wisdom was that no one would watch golf, that it
couldn't compete with football," said PGA TOUR's Steve
Rankin, Vice President of Tournament, Sponsor Affairs. "What
those two tournaments proved was that something other than
football could be successful that time of year."
What resulted from that conclusion was the advent of what is
known as the PGA TOUR coordinated event, which now includes the
Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua International and The Skins Game.
"The turning point was 1983," Rolfing says. "We
were basically playing by our own rules and after that, we
decided it was best to coordinate our event with the TOUR. In the
long run, it's turned out great for everyone."
"There has been so much talk about post season and its role
in the game," adds Rolfing. "Clearly, this part of the
year has become very important to the players. Kapalua is not
simply a made-for-TV event, its a legitimate 72 hole stroke-play
championship. This event started it all."
Past Champions
1996 Winner Paul Stankowski
1995 Jim Furyk | 1993/1994 Fred Couples | 1992 Davis Love III |
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1991 Mike Hulbert | 1990 David Peoples | 1989 Peter Jacobsen |
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1988 Bob Gilder | 1986/1987 Andy Bean | 1985 Mark O'Meara |
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1984 Sandy Lyle | 1983 Greg Norman | 1982 David Ishii |
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LMKI Home Page | Tournament History | 1996 Final Scores |