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Kids autograph zone a hit with young fans

Sentry Tournament of Champions

5 min read

For the first time, young golf fans are enjoying their own designated autograph zone outside the scoring trailer at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

The sectioned-off area is located ahead of the standard area for spectators seeking autographs. The kids autograph zone became popular at the Players Championship a few years ago and has begun to spread to other PGA Tour events.

"I think it's fantastic that the kids get the opportunity to meet the golfers and get pictures with them and autographs," Natasha McKay of Calgary, Alberta, said Friday. "It's just for the kids and it's not other people looking to get an autograph to go and sell it."

McKay's sons -- Callum, 17, and Keegan, 13 -- were among hundreds of children who frequented the area after golfers finished their second round Friday at the Kapalua Plantation Course.

"It was cool," Callum said. "This is the first PGA Tour event we've been to so it was cool to meet them and get signatures from them."

The brothers play high school golf and compete in tournaments throughout the year, but rarely get a chance to meet their golfing idols. Among the dozen or so signatures they obtained were those of Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler.

"I've been to the LPGA and other events and it's been a little harder," he said of meeting golfers. "They often don't have room for that."

GREENS CONCERNS

Discoloration of greens due to record rainfall last month has spread through the Kapalua Plantation Course and caught the eye of some of the golfers this week.

"It doesn't roll," U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka said after shooting a 1-over 74 during Friday's second round. "It definitely bounces. I don't know what they did, but ... they're all not good."

Kapalua Golf issued a statement Friday acknowledging the "visual appearance" of a few of the putting surfaces. Officials, however, noted that the discoloration has not affected the way the putting surfaces play.

"All greens are rolling true this week and for our Kapalua guests throughout the year," general manager Alex Nakajima said in a news release. "As the Golf Channel reported: 'Although ... clearly visible, players have said it hasn't impacted play or how putts roll.' "

Nakajima attributed the discoloration of the greens to "unusual seasonal weather" compounded by increased visitor traffic and shorter daylight hours. Nearly 200 rounds of golf a day are played at the course during this time of year.

The course also experienced a record-breaking 20 inches of rain from November through mid-December.

"Once you get that stretch of bad weather it compounds a lot of things," he said. "It is a hard time to prepare to host a tournament, but we go through this every year."

The course's tifeagle greens were resurfaced in 2004, but since then a different strain of Bermuda grass has "naturally crept" into a few greens causing the discoloration, Nakajima said.

"It was a little curveball, but it is part of what we do," he said. "We have a great team and they can adjust on the fly, but one particular green was tough to recover this time."

Hole No. 14 stood out to some fans and golfers, who commented on issues with judging speeds. Jordan Spieth said the greens were a little slower than previous years, which he partly contributed to him carding the worst round of his career at the tournament Thursday.

Spieth rebounded Friday, shooting 7 under.

"You just have to kind of feel it and just hit putts a little harder than you want," Spieth said. "I didn't really recognize that yesterday and started to make the adjustment today."

SONY OPEN FIELD

The committed field for next week's Sony Open was released on Friday -- 20 of the 34 golfers at the Sentry Tournament of Champions will play at Waialae Country Club.

While this year's Kapalua event has seven of the top-10-ranked golfers in the world, only two will play in the Sony -- No. 3 Justin Thomas, the defending champion, and No. 2 Jordan Spieth.

Ryan Armour, Daniel Berger, Jonas Blixt, Wesley Bryan, Austin Cook, Jason Dufner, Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Si Woo Kim, Kevin Kisner, Patton Kizzire, Marc Leishman, D.A. Points, Xander Schauffele, Cameron Smith, Kyle Stanley, Chris Stroud and Hudson Swafford are the other Sentry golfers who will be at Waialae.

There are seven former major winners in the Sony field -- Spieth, Thomas, Dufner, Jimmy Walker, Vijay Singh, Zach Johnson and Webb Simpson.

Last year, 23 of 32 players here played in the Sony.

QUOTABLE

"Get off to a better start than today. I'll definitely play better this weekend."

-- Rickie Fowler

when asked what he needs to do in the final two rounds

_______________

HOLE OF THE DAY

No. 2

218 yards • Par 3

No. 2 was the toughest hole of the day Friday. The hole saw just two birdies, one by co-leader Marc Leishman. It also had 21 pars, 10 bogeys and a double bogey, and played to an average of 0.294 strokes over par.

Starting at /week.