Let's be honest, especially for those of us who live in northern climes, a holiday in Hawaii is at or near the top of many of our bucket lists..
It was always on mine and luckily in a previous life I was lucky enough to make the 12 hour flight from Toronto to Honolulu for a holiday every year and got to know the islands very well through my fiancé at the time, who was a long time flight attendant first with Wardair then with Canadian Pacific.
The temperature is never below 55*F and there is always a breeze, just beautiful and once you get away from the tourist beaches and their resorts, the islands have a spectacular and varied topography set in the middle of the Pacific ocean that is simply stunning.
That background is the annual start of the year for pro's on the PGA Tour and then the Champions Tour, and what a soft start to a long grinding season it is.
Last week, another rising young super star Justin Thomas got it all under way holding off the charge of Hideki Matsuyama down the stretch in the SBS Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, and this week the first full field of the year are on the island of Oahu for the Sony Open on the tight little Waialea course and Thomas is already -8 through 10 holes to lead early in round 1. MacKenzie Hughes, Nick Taylor and David Hearn are the Canadian contingent. Jordan Spieth is the top ranked player.
PGA Tour Sony Open leaderboard http://www.pgatour.com/competition/2017/sony-open-in-hawaii/leaderboard.html
Many of the pros bring their families out a couple of weeks early for a holiday, we saw pictures of Ben Crane and his kids last week watching a huge sea turtle walk across the beach, Crane noting he'd finally found "something that moves slower than he does !!"
Next week they all move to the California desert for the Hope, the seniors take over their empty accommodations as they kick of their year January 19-21 with the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.
It's a long, but very lucrative season for the 200 or so who have status on the PGA Tour and the older 125 or so on the Champions. They stay and travel first class all the way, and all are millionaires and more who have led a very charmed life.
Still, as you struggle home from work or whatever and tune in this evening to the blue skies and palm trees shrouding the blue Pacific, you must admit it is a dream start to the season.
Bryan Angus
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