Ex- Kailua resident gets invite to winners-only event on Big Island

All this and Hualalai, too.

Winning at Pebble Beach "is a dream come true," said Scott Simpson after his first PGA Champions Tour victory Sunday in the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach.

Twenty-four hours later, at his home in Poway, Calif., the former Kailua resident realized that he achieved another dream — playing for the first time at the Hualalai Golf Club, site of the winners-only MasterCard Championship.

"That's a huge bonus. I've never played there. I've heard so many good things about Hualalai," Simpson said in a telephone interview.

"And guys like Greg (Nichols) and Chris (McLachlin) kept telling me to win so that I could play there," said Simpson, referring to two of his closest friends here. "So, I really wanted to win one this year."

Simpson did, in his 25th start on the senior tour, with a one-stroke victory by birdieing Pebble Beach's famous par-5 finishing hole.

What made it even more of a surreal dream was that Simpson's long-time celebrity playing partner, Bill Murray, was in the gallery.

"I was in the exact spot where he was when we were playing together in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this year," Simpson said. "He holed it out from 90 yards."

Murray didn't let Simpson or anyone else within earshot forget it.

"You know, I did make it from here," Murray said while Simpson was lining up his shot.

"I didn't hole it out but I got it to 8 feet and made the putt for birdie," said Simpson, who thanked Murray for keeping him loose as the pressure mounted on the final nine. Especially Murray's one-liner before the shot that set up a birdie, enabling Simpson to avoid a playoff.

With that, Simpson got a ticket to Hualalai on the Big Island.

He and his wife, Cheryl, a Radford High School graduate, were planning to vacation here next January anyway to play in the Turtle Bay Championship, the following week after Hualalai.

So, that's why the MasterCard Championship came as a huge bonus, according to Simpson. "For two years, too," he said, knowing that a victory means a two-year MasterCard exemption. Priceless.

Will Simpson make it a three-week stay by playing in the Sony Open in Hawai'i as well?

It depends if he gets an exemption, he said.

"I'm not going to ask for one. I don't feel good about it," Simpson said, though adding he wouldn't turn down an exemption. "The Sony people were good enough to give me an exemption twice (in 2004 and 2005). They'd be better off giving it to younger (PGA Tour) players. They'll remember who gave them exemptions."

Simpson didn't receive one this year. And when he didn't make it in the Monday qualifying, he caddied for Chris' son, Parker McLachlin, a member of the Nationwide Tour.

"I may caddy for Parker again," Simpson said.

Parker called, but couldn't get through after Simpson's breakthrough victory.

"He left a message, saying how great it was that I won and Dean (Wilson), too, in the same year," Simpson said. "I'll let him know that Kimberly Kim also won when he calls back."

Don't forget to tell him that Kaua'i's Casey Watabu also won the U.S. Men's Amateur Public Links, this caller told Simpson.

"I will. All kinds of Hawai'i connection. What a good year in golf for Hawai'i," Simpson said.

A seven-time winner on the PGA Tour, Simpson won the 1987 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco when he lived in Hawai'i Kai. He later bought a beach home in Kailua, where the family resided for seven years before moving back to his hometown of San Diego.

Their kids, who grew up in the Islands, are kids no longer.

Daughter Brea Yoshiko Simpson, 23, is a flight attendant for Alaskan Airlines and hopes that it gets a Hawai'i route so that she can spend more time here.

Sean Tokuzo Simpson, 19, who also caddied for Dad in the Sony Open, is a sophomore at the University of Southern California, Scott's alma mater.

Simpson's local ties go back a long way.

He won the Hawai'i State Open twice (1979 and 1981) at the Ala Wai Golf Course.

"I can see Cheryl and I moving back there (to Hawai'i) once I stop playing a lot," Simpson said.

That may be a while, considering Simpson, who played in only four senior events last year after turning 50 on Sept. 17, is regarded as a "rookie" on the Champions Tour.

"It's hard thinking of myself as being a 'rookie,' " Simpson said. "But I guess I am."

So that first victory on the Champions Tour was a great thrill, he said. Maybe not as big as his U.S. Open victory, but it "ranks right up there."

For a couple of reasons.

"It has been a while since I won," said Simpson, whose last PGA Tour victory came in the 1998 Buick Invitational in San Diego.

"And especially since it came at Pebble Beach."

All that, and now, Hualalai, too.