Sitting in his cart, just a short putt away from the ocean, Mark Rolfing is at ease.
“It feels like home,” Rolfing said. “The people, just the feeling here — it’s the best.”
Rolfing is the unofficial ambassador for the PGA’s Hawaii Swing. He calls Maui home, but maintains the Big Island always has a special draw.
“It’s not like any other stop,” Rolfing said. “It’s the mana of this place that is so attractive and compelling for everybody.”
Just hours before getting in front of the camera for the Golf Channel broadcast of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, Rolfing was taking in the views and telling tales from his more than three decades behind the microphone.
His mind never strays far from the course, and for the constant problem-solver and brainstormer, it doesn’t take long for the conversation to sway towards how to improve the game.
“For the first time, in a long time, golf is starting to address its core problems,” Rolfing said. “Industry-wide, there are three core issues — the game is too difficult, it takes too long and it costs too much. Almost any problem can be traced back to those things.”
He tosses around solutions for each — from limiting costs on maintenance and playing on brown rather than lush green courses, to allowing people to play whatever number of holes fit their schedule.
“We can’t be scared to do something different,” Rolfing said.
The lingering issue heading into Hualalai was the strike that started last week during the final round of the Sony Open on Oahu. Without its regular camera, audio and utility workers, the Golf Channel implemented its contingency plan for its tournament broadcast on the Big Island, as well as for productions in California and the Bahamas. Despite somewhat limited coverage of the course, it has worked well.
While Rolfing said he didn’t know enough information on the situation to comment, he had some thoughts about the golf broadcasts in general and their expanding costs.
“It is so expensive to televise golf. I think that is one of the inherent problems of the sport,” Rolfing said. “Nobody has figured out a shortcut. Our playing field is not the size of a basketball court or 100 yards. It’s 200 acres. Usually it’s two teams, one ball and you can keep the score on a piece of paper. We have 44 players out here this week.”
“All the elements of golf that make it the great game it is also make it the hardest to televise, by far,” he added. “Somewhere down the line we have to become more efficient.”
The improvised broadcast has brought to light some creative solutions, especially for the PGA Tour Champions, which features a roster chock-full of household names.
“Golf on this tour should be televised differently than the PGA Tour,” Rolfing said. “This tour — which is an extremely competitive tour — I believe has more star power throughout the field than a normal PGA Tour event. It’s almost more of a celebration of golf. During the first few rounds, it’s more important for the viewers to be able to see Tom Kite, Sandy Lyle or Tom Watson shoot the signature hole on the course, rather than chasing down someone on the front nine who might have a shot at being in the lead.”
As for storylines, Rolfing is mesmerized — like most golf fans — by the longevity of Bernhard Langer, the King of Hualalai. Langer was named the Player of the Year on the Champions Tour for a seventh time earlier this week, and at 8-under through two rounds, he still has an outside shot to win his fourth title on the Big Island.
“He looks 30 years younger than his age and plays like it. He has these seasons where we don’t think he can do it again, and he proves us all wrong,” Rolfing said of the 60-year-old Langer. “Everybody is trying to figure out a way to beat him. He’s a different kind of target on the leaderboard. With Langer, there’s only one way to beat him, and that’s to beat him — he’s not going to beat himself, which adds pressure to the other golfers.”
Rolfing is leaving paradise next week to head to California to watch the Farmers Insurance Open, where Tiger Woods will be making his season-debut. He saw Woods at the Presidents Cup late last year and, like many others, came away optimistic after watching his rounds at the Hero World Challenge on TV.
Rolfing has a feeling that this time, the comeback could stick.
“At the Presidents Cup, I saw a gleam in his eye I haven’t seen in a long time,” Rolfing said. “I feel really good about this comeback. But having said that, how is he going to beat Dustin Johnson. How is he going to beat Jordan Spieth or Rickie Fowler. I hope he keeps in perspective what his goals are. I think it’s going to be a slower process and steady improvement rather than winning right away.”
Much like the game of golf, Rolfing has made it through some rough patches to be able to put his feet up on his golf cart and enjoy that “feeling” he speaks of in Hawaii. Rolfing is a survivor of Stage 4 salivary gland cancer, a diagnosis he received in August 2015. He made his comeback to broadcasting, appropriately, at Kapalua in 2016, where he got his start all those years ago.
He’s learned through it all that there’s a common theme between golf and overcoming adversity — hope.
“With golf, there’s always hope you are going to play your best round ever. It keeps you coming back,” he said. “As for anyone going through a tough time, you have to remember there’s always hope. That’s the message I have to carry forward — never lose hope.”
