Mark Rolfing interviewed Tiger Woods at the 2000 Presidents Cup at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va. Courtesy photo
In 1985, Mark Rolfing hit the shot of his life while playing in the Isuzu Kapalua International, an unofficial, made-for-TV golf event shown on ESPN that he created as the director of marketing for the West Maui course.
Rolfing’s tee shot on the par-3 17th hole of the Kapalua Bay Course was closest to the pin. He won a cherry red Isuzu Impulse — and so much more.
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“It literally became the shot of my life because after I hit it they brought me up to the announcers booth with Lee Trevino and Vin Scully,” Rolfing said. “There was a ruling going on the course or something that extended my interview.”
That interview led the Maui resident to a remarkable 40-year-and-counting career as a golf analyst on national TV. It also has been part of his half century of advocacy for golf and other sports on the island that he and his wife Debi adopted as their home in 1975.
NBC and Golf Channel analyst Mark Rolfing (middle) has been a part of all 27 versions of The Sentry golf tournament at the Kapalua Plantation Course since the event began there inm 1999. HJI / ROB COLLIAS photo
Now, Rolfing, at age 76, is taking one more big shot. He is trying to help save The Sentry tournament, the crown jewel of his sports legacy on Maui.
Rolfing was instrumental in the PGA Tour event coming to Maui and becoming a fixture at the Kapalua Plantation Course for the past 27 years, as the prestigious first event on the PGA Tour calendar.
But due to water and drought issues this year in West Maui, the Kapalua Plantation Course became unplayable at the elite level leading to the PGA Tour announcing on Sept. 16 that The Sentry would not be played there as scheduled in Janauary.
Last week, the PGA Tour announced The Sentry will not be played anywhere in 2026. And, the PGA Tour and title sponsor Sentry Insurance have been noncommittal about any future plans of the popular tournament.
Within the last week, Rolfing said he has dedicated himself to bringing back The Sentry to the Kapalua Plantation Course. He and Debi have rescued the event before, in 2011, when there was no title sponsor. The Mark and Debi Rolfing Charitable Foundation stepped in to run the tournament.
Mark Rolfing (right) is shown here in the studio at The Golf Channel in this recent photo. Courtesy photo
“I’ve now recommitted myself to doing whatever I can to try and make sure The Sentry is on the schedule for Maui in 2027,” he said during an interview on Tuesday. “Because when I look around I don’t see who else is going to be in charge of this process.”
Rolfing said there are two key steps to start the effort.
One is solving the litigation that is going on between Plantation Course owner TY Management and Maui Land & Pineapple over the water issues.
The second is gaining the support of PGA Tour players who want to play here. Legendary golfer Tiger Woods chairs a new nine-member committee, the Future Competition Committee, that was formed by the PGA Tour to re-evaluate and modernize its competitive model. There are six PGA Tour players on the committee.
“Who is going to stay on the governor about trying to solve this water problem? Or who’s going to talk to Tiger Woods or (PGA Tour CEO) Brian Rolapp? I don’t know,” Rolfing said. “I’ve got a renewed sense of energy here to at least give it a shot.”
If anyone has enough clout on Maui to do so, it’s Rolfing. He has been a mover and shaker for sports on the island since he and Debi became residents in 1975. He was hired as a golf pro at Kapalua Bay Course in 1976, and moved up to director of marketing, starting the Kapalua Invitational, an unofficial golf tournament that lured pros in the PGA Tour’s offseason.
Sherel Stosik, who was president of Rolfing Productions which began in 1982 for television production of the golf tournament, said Rolfing made the pitch to ESPN that the tournament could show off Maui when it was winter on the Mainland.
“They called it the ‘silly season’,” Stosik said of the unofficial golf tournaments. “But Mark said the good thing is with the time difference, you can put it in prime time and you’ll see sunshine and surfers and beauty and whales, all that good stuff. Mark had a vision and it worked.”
The NBC golf team in 1989 Bob Goalby, Lee Trevino, Vin Scully, Jay Randolph and Mark Rolfing are shown here in this 1989 photo. Courtesy photo
ESPN said yes to broadcasting the Maui tournament for the first time in 1985, the year Rolfing hit the closest to the pin shot.
Don Ohlmeyer, a former executive for NBC, ABC, ESPN and The Golf Channel who died in 2017, was producing the Kapalua telecast that Sunday. He approached Rolfing after the interview with the legendary announcer Scully and golf great Trevino and said: “How would you like to try out as an on course commentator next week?”
Less than two weeks later, Rolfing made his television debut at the World Cup of Golf in La Quinta, Calif. He did so well Ohlmeyer signed him to 20 events in 1986.
“And that’s how it started,” Rolfing said. “One shot. I hit one shot.”
The added notoriety helped Rolfing continue his golfing legend grow on Maui.
From 1986 to 1991, Rolfing was co-developer of the Kapalua Plantation Course with Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, a two-time Masters champion. That championship course sprung from pineapple fields and opened in 1991.
In 1999, the Kapalua Plantation Course became the home every January of the PGA Tour’s Tournament of Champions. That event, now known as The Sentry, came to Maui largely due to Rolfing’s work and the success of the International, which he ran through 1997.
Mark Rolfing interviewed Lee Trevino at The Players championship in 2025. Courtesy photo
Throughout the past 40 years, Rolfing has worked as a golf analyst for several national television networks, including ESPN from 1986 to 1988; NBC from 1988 to 1991; ABC and ESPN from 1991 to 1997; and with NBC and The Golf Channel steadily since 1998. Rolfing, who currently is the longest tenured golf analyst on any network, expects to sign another contract to continue with The Golf Channel in 2026.
Along the way, Rolfing has interviewed the best golfers in the world, including Woods, Byron Nelson and Jack Nicklaus, big time golfing celebrities like NBA legend Michael Jordan and U.S. golfing presidents Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
But it was his friendship with golfing legend Arnold Palmer that cemented Rolfing’s start and staying power in the golf universe. He met Palmer while designing the Kapalua Village Course. At the time, Palmer walked into the golf cart barn and asked who was the best player in the room. Rolfing raised his hand and said: “I am.”
Mark Rolfing (right) becamse close friends with Arnie Palmer, as shown in this 1985 photo. Courtesy photo
“Arnie says, ‘are you sure?’ And I said, ‘yep.’,” Rolfing recalled. “And he said, ‘Okay, you’re my partner this afternoon.’ ”
That was the start of a longtime relationship that was a large part of the success of the International tournament because Rolfing got Palmer to play in the event several times, raising the profile of the tournament and drawing Arnie’s Army of fans.
“I was his partner every day for the rest of our lives,” Rolfing said of Palmer. “Whenever he came out to Kapalua, that’s for sure.”
In 2016, Global Golf Post lauded Rolfing as “a man of grace and good will whose voice has become part of the game’s soundtrack.” Earlier in his career, USA Today named Rolfing “Golf’s best on-course commentator.”
The PGA of America honored the Rolfings with its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award in 2017, recognizing those who advance humanitarian interests through the game.
Rolfing said his most memorable interview was with Palmer in 1994 at his last U.S. Open, which was at Oakmont in his native western Pennsylvania.
Mark and Debi Rolfing were close friends with Arnold Palmer, who died in 2016. Courtesy photo
“It was just an unbelievable interview, because he basically was speechless and couldn’t talk,” Rolfing said. “We were scrambling to get off the air. It was a Friday afternoon, and there was just a whole lot going on … O.J. Simpson was in the Bronco driving around L.A. … that interview with Arnold Palmer was the one that I always remember.”
In 1984, before becoming a golf analyst, Rolfing started Rolfing Sports, a company that helped launch the Maui Classic college basketball tournament and the Kaʻanapali Classic, a PGA Tour senior golf tournament that played at Kaʻanapali from 1987 to 2000.
The Maui Classic was a four-team event held at War Memorial Gym in Wailuku in 1984 and 1985. The tournament moved to the Lahaina Civic Center in 1986 when it became an eight-team event and host Chaminade University of Honolulu took over the operation of the tournament, renaming it the Maui Invitational.
Ray Stosik, a former professional basketball player in Europe and Sherel Stosik’s husband, helped Rolfing with the Maui Classic and the two golf tournaments in the 1980s.
“I first met Mark when he was working in the cart barn in Kapalua, and I mean, he’s had quite a ride,” said Ray Stosik, who has been the executive director of the Sony Open in Hawai’i, the first full-field PGA Tour tournament of the calendar year, for the past 28 years. “He’s been my mentor.”
From left, Bill Coore, Debi Rolfing, Mark Rolfing, and Ben Crenshaw review plans for the Kapalua Plantation Course in this 1987 photo. Courtesy photo
Marty Keiter, the first golf pro at the Kapalua Plantation Course, remembers that Rolfing’s contribution was key to the whole development of the 7,596-yard, par-73 layout.
“Building that Plantation Course was just an unbelievable experience, one that I’ll always cherish,” Keiter said. “And Mark was the driving force behind all of that.”
In 1996, Rolfing launched Golf Hawaiʻi weekly television show, which ran for 3 seasons on ESPN and 12 on The Golf Channel with guests including Palmer, Nicklaus, Trevino, Woods, Crenshaw, Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Greg Norman and Jordan.
Mark and Debi Rolfing are shown here with Michael Jordan at the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles Golf Course. Courtesy photo
There are numerous people Rolfing has helped start careers in professional golf, including Kelly Fliear, the tournament manager for the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualālai on Hawai’i Island for the past 28 years.
Dick McClean was the tournament manager for the Kapalua International golf event and also a close friend of Rolfing’s who was instrumental in the development of all the events for Rolfing Sports.
Nancy Cross, Rolfing’s longtime assistant before becoming tournament director for The Sentry from 2000 to 2010, said the team at Kapalua from the 1980s and 1990s will never forget what Rolfing did for them.
Maui’s Mark Rolfing interviews Byron Nelson as Phil Mickelson watches in this 1994 photo. Courtesy photo
“He really made sure to give us a start with our careers. He was golf in Hawai’i,” Cross said. “So we, all of us, really appreciate that.”
But Rolfing’s mortality came into sharp focus when he visited his skin doctor in Wailea in August 2015. Dr. George Martin noticed a “small bump … the size of a pin needle” on Rolfing’s cheek and said it needed to be checked out.
After two more doctors examined the bump, one in Wailuku and one in Chicago, a biopsy was taken and Rolfing got a call from his doctor in Chicago, telling him he had stage 4 cancer of the salivary gland and his chances for survival “were not very good.”
Instead of going to work at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straights in Wisconsin, he had a 9-hour surgery to remove the tumor.
“They were giving me like a 5% chance to make a year,” Rolfing said. “And you know what? They were wrong.”
Five weeks of radiation treatments at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston followed during November and December. He had a total of 31 radiation treatments where he had to stay motionless for two hours in a Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine.
Rolfing’s first assignment back behind the microphone after his recovery was the 2016 tournament at his beloved Kapalua Plantation Course.
This photo of Mark Rolfing (right) and Johnny Miller are shown broadcasting from Wailea for the Women’s Kemper Open in the late 1980s. Courtesy photo
“Everyone’s the best one,” he said of the 27 Kapalua PGA Tour events he has done.
Now, he shares his cancer story with anyone who needs or wants to hear it. He is a natural storyteller.
“It’s surreal,” said Rolfing, who also has homes in Montana and Chicago with Debi. “That’s one word that comes to mind always. And it just was a career that was so unlikely to happen. All the planets lined up and I was just in the right place at the right time on a number of different occasions and was able to take advantage of it.”
Sherel Stosik said: “So 2026 makes 50 years of Mark and his … investment and blessing to Kapalua, to Maui. That’s a long time.”
But Keiter looks at the legacy of what he was part of with Rolfing and is concerned that The Sentry may never come back to Maui.
A group of Kapalua colleagues appear in this 1990s photo. From left, Doug Stacy, Dick McClean, Crisanne Zufelt, Paul Mancini, Debi Rolfing, Mark Rolfing and Marty Keiter are shown at the Rolfing’s ranch in Montana. Courtesy photo
“It’s just so sad to see what’s happening now, but Kapalua was just in the middle of the golf world in the Pacific,” Keiter said. “Everyone came there then. … Mark was there first.”
Keiter, now 75, believes Rolfing is the man to bring The Sentry back, if it is possible. The two old friends talk several times a week.
“I definitely think he’s the right guy because he knows all the people involved, the PGA Tour, Maui Land & Pineapple, TY Management, everybody,” Keiter said. “He has a relationship with the governor and the mayor. … I hope he can save it for the state, for Maui, for all the charities.”
