Print this page  |  Close Window

By John Maginnes
PGATOUR.com Contributor

Editor's note: John Maginnes played the PGA TOUR for a decade and also won three times on the Nationwide Tour. Maginnes now works as an analyst for the PGA TOUR Network on XM Satellite Radio. He will be contributing regularly to PGATOUR.com.

Most weeks on the PGA TOUR the players are not tourists. Of course, they aren't exactly business travelers, either. They tend to fall somewhere in between.

However, this week at the Sony Open in Hawaii the players are not unlike the people who come to Honolulu to sight-see. Although some players stay at the Mandarin Resort, which is located adjacent to the golf course, many of them are snuggled into rooms in the high rises that line Waikiki Beach. Unless you are the geekiest of golf fans, like me, though, then you would not recognize them.

They are among you like alien invaders in a bad science fiction movie. Dressed in their shorts, t-shirts, baseball caps and sunglasses they are just like all the other young guys strolling along the beach. They can pass for anything from graduate students to insurance adjusters on a vacation. So if you are fortunate enough to be on Waikiki beach this week, how can you spot them?

If you see a guy strolling the beach shirtless with a farmer's tan you can bet dollars to doughnuts that he is a TOUR player. If his legs are tan and his feet are white he is a caddy. When you are at Duke's you will see tables full of people having a good time. If one of the young guys at a table has a beer or two and then switches to water -- TOUR player. If that young guy in his shorts and t-shirt is wearing a watch that costs as much as a small car -- he's a TOUR player, too.

The caddies are easier to spot. They will be at Duke's till dark and then move to the Dog House downstairs in the International Market. It is owned by one of their own. They wear shorts and a t-shirt, too, but their baseball caps tend to be the same ones that they wore to the golf course that day.

While many of players and caddies won't make it to the Pearl Harbor memorial on their first trip, they will eventually. Most players will make the drive up to the Bonsai Pipeline at the North Shore to check out the waves, too. They dream of the courage to drop in on one of those massive faces just like the other gawkers, but few will ever try.

After the TOUR leaves Hawaii, it enters the major markets on the West Coast and the players become more business travelers than tourists. They enjoy Hawaii for the same reasons that everyone else does. What a place to start the year. What a place to start a career.

If you encounter one of these interlopers on the tourist party walking the beach or bellied up to the bar approach with caution. You may feel the urge to break into conversation about the last round you played but nothing bores this species of golfer more. Instead, wish him good luck. You never know, he might even buy a round.

Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved.