Maginnes: Living a dream in Maui

text size

For one week each year the best of the best on the PGA TOUR get to call Kapalua Resort their office. Gary Planos gets to do it every week of the year, though -- and he doesn't even have to win a golf tournament to get invited back.

Gary is the tournament chairman for the Mercedes-Benz Championship, among many other duties at Kapalua. Growing up as a caddy in Illinois, Gary fell in love with the service side of the golf industry. An Evans Scholarship to the University of Illinois gave him the freedom to "cut the cord," as he puts it, and he has taken full advantage.

Imagine if this was your office? It is for Gary Planos. (Badz/PGA TOUR)

"Whether it was caddying, working the bag room or working in the shop as an assistant ... I just loved being in the golf business," Gary said recently as he took a break from preparations for the Mercedes-Benz Championship.

For the past eight years, Gary has served as chairman of the winners-only event that begins Thursday and annually kicks off the PGA TOUR season. One of the perks of being the man in charge is that Gary gets to call each tournament winner and invite him to Maui in January. He tries to coordinate with the TOUR staff on site so that he can talk to the champion right after he has signed his scorecard Sunday afternoon.

Gary likes to tell the story about the call he made to Ryan Palmer after he won the 2004 FUNAI Classic at Walt Disney World Resort. Gary had called the cell phone of PGA TOUR rules official Jon Brendle, who happened to be standing next to Ryan as they awaited the conclusion of the tournament and the awards ceremony. Realizing that they had a few minutes, Jon handed his cell over to Ryan, who had closed with a 62 to win by three. During the conversation one of the network television cameras caught Ryan on the phone. So as Gary was talking to Ryan five times zones away, he was watching on the TV in his office.

If one of the perks of his job is congratulating winners each week, one of the more difficult aspects has to be the fact that so few players are able to win TOUR events each year to make themselves eligible for the Mercedes-Benz Championship.

"I think we only have seven players returning from last year and one of them is not the man who has won here three of the last four years," Gary noted.

Gary goes on to say that Stuart Appleby, who won three straight tournaments at Kapalua before Vijay Singh ended the streak in 2007, has been a great ambassador for the event. Gary is quick to point out that although Stuart isn't in the field, he is now a property owner at Kapalua. And another Kapalua property owner and former champion, Jim Furyk, will be in the field this week.

Those fortunate enough to earn a spot in the Mercedes-Benz Championship know that Gary and his staff will do everything they can to make the player's experience on Maui as wonderful as possible. Talking to Gary about Kapalua isn't like talking to someone about his job -- it is more like talking to an artist about art. His passions run like rain water off the West Maui Mountains that frame the property so beautifully.

That passion has taken a caddy from the Midwest who got off the plane in Hawaii more than 30 years ago looking for a job to the title of senior vice president of resort operations at Kapalua. What that means is that he is in charge of the golf, the club and all the events that take place throughout the year. In addition to the Mercedes-Benz Championship, Kapalua will host the LPGA Tour in October, 2008 for the first time.

If there is a better spot to open the season, I certainly can't think of it. The Plantation Course at Kapalua is just one of the incredible features of this magnificent property. The luxurious Ritz-Carlton, which underwent a $100 million renovation before welcoming this year's group of players, is another.

As most of us look on from the frozen mainland at the year's first event, we are a little jealous of those boys out there getting rich in the sunshine while our clubs sit collecting dust in the closet. Perhaps our envy is misplaced, though. After all, they are just visiting -- Gary gets to live there all year long.