Rolfing Has Even More Reason To Rave About All Things Hawaii

Ann Miller reports on announcer Mark Rolfing's charity becoming the beneficiary of the renamed Hyundai Tournament of Champions. It pays to go fishing with the Commissioner!

Note how Miller puts the current PGA Tour buzzwords in quotes. Underpin! New energy! Energize!

Now SBS will "underpin" the tournament through 2019, according to the tour. That will include hospitality and other on-site activities. The Mark and Debi Rolfing Charitable Foundation became the non-profit host organization, required by the tour, in August.

Back then Rolfing, an NBC golf analyst from Kapalua, characterized his involvement as a "last-gasp" effort to keep the tournament in Hawaii. Hyundai's sponsorship gives the event room to breathe.

Rolfing's vision is to bring "new energy" to the tournament, which he considers vital for its future. Starting in 2011, there will be no admission charge -- a first for the PGA Tour. Rolfing plans to turn the TOC into a weeklong event that will attract people from the whole state and "energize" the world about the start of the golf season.

There will be a Hawaii Junior Golf Festival the Sunday before the tournament and three days of special events similar to baseball's all-star week, with a long-drive contest and pros interacting with amateurs, juniors and celebrities. The night before the tour tees off (Jan. 5), Golf Channel will have a 2-hour prime-time special from the first tee.

"I felt if we could create energy for the tournament by doing different things it would make it more attractive to a new sponsor and, lo and behold, it did," Rolfing said. "I don't think anybody imagined we'd get a new sponsor two months out, but this is going to continue because the new sponsor basically bought into the concept."

And don't you know we'll hear all about from Rolfing during the telecast.