These days, aloha — as in the "Aloha Season" — means good-bye, not howzit.

The Turtle Bay Championship is gone from the 2009 PGA Champions Tour schedule after a seven-year search for a corporate title sponsor proved fruitless. The senior tour's first full-field event joins the LPGA's Fields Open in Hawai'i as the second professional golf tournament in less than a month to exit the local scene.

The resort on Oahu's North Shore was in discussion with the PGA Tour up until last month with the hopes of putting the event together for next year. But it decided it couldn't continue to host the tournament without a title sponsor, according to Matt Hall, Turtle Bay Resort's director of golf.

"As great as the community, property owners and all the volunteers have been about supporting the event, it came to a time where we had to make a decision," Hall said. "We're looking at over $2 million, counting prize money, to put on an event like that. It makes decision-making very difficult when you know you've got that type of expense annually."

That kind of expenditure promoting the Turtle Bay Resort was worth it during the early years of the event, Hall said.

"We've kind of gone through that cycle of using it to do that. We still think it's important but we don't feel that (way) at the level of being a title sponsor.

"Also, too, a big decision with us is our having an LPGA event, because they do have a title sponsor (Seoul Broadcasting System). For us, it's a strong relationship and we like the vision of the LPGA and where that's going with all its stars and as it relates to the players that are in Asia as well," Hall said.

"We'll have the event (SBS Open at Turtle Bay) in 2009 and what we're working on now is extending it to 2014."

The decision ended the seniors' seven-year run at the Turtle Bay Resort's Palmer Course. It was called the Ka'anapali Classic when it started in 1987 before moving from Maui to O'ahu in the fall of 2001. After a year's hiatus in 2004, the Turtle Bay Championship became the Champions Tour's first full-field event in 2005, following the season-opening MasterCard Championship, a winners-only event, at the Hualalai Resort on the Big Island.

So that seven-year itch without a title sponsor led to the scratching of the Turtle Bay Championship, leaving this year's winner, Jerry Pate, without a chance to defend his title.

Hall hopes things can be worked out with the PGA Tour and 141 Sports, which coordinates local pro events including the Sony Open with the tour, so that a second senior tour event returns here in the future, perhaps again at Turtle Bay.

"Once a golf tournament leaves, it's extremely difficult to get it back. Usually, it is taken up by someone else," said Ray Stosik, 141 president.

"We had been exhausting our resources from a global corporate level to get the tournament to continue. After seven years we were not able to locate one (a title sponsor). With the change of ownership forthcoming with the resort, there wasn't somebody to continue from the Oaktree Capital side. The sad thing is that the players loved the course."

Said Hall, who's also president of the Aloha Section PGA: "I think it's a great venue and a great opportunity for sponsors to be involved. Unfortunately, we just haven't found that right relationships where somebody sees that same values. As somebody who's involved in the golf industry and a big advocate for professional golf events in Hawai'i, it's really too bad. Anytime an event leaves the state, it's a concern."

Also expressing concern was television golf analyst Mark Rolfing, who helped in the formation of the so-called Aloha Season 10 years ago when he was with the Hawai'i Tourism Authority.

"Losing these two events is disappointing, but I'm not surprised," said Rolfing, who pointed out how fragile Hawai'i's professional golf schedule became when the PGA Grand Slam of Golf left Kaua'i two years ago. "I'm hopeful we've seen the last of it, but I'm not sure. It's like a domino effect. There are a lot of different ramifications when you lose an event."

That's why he's concerned about what might happen to the other senior tour event opening the 2009 season at the Hualalai Resort next January. After 12 straight years, MasterCard pulled out as title sponsor at Hualalai but the tournament will be held as scheduled. They're in the process of finalizing a deal with a new title sponsor for at least one year, according to John Freitas, Hualalai's director of golf.

"The PGA Tour is only on the hook for 2009," Freitas said. "It remains to be seen beyond that. We want to keep it," he said, well aware of what happened at Turtle Bay.

Rolfing thought the Turtle Bay Resort should be commended for going it alone all this time.

"I give them all the credit in the world and they have another event on our schedule. I don't expect any site to step up for more than one event. It's hard enough to find a site for any event," he said.

"It's just a question of where the PGA Tour was putting their sales priority in terms of finding sponsors for their events. Obviously, the Turtle Bay priority for that long a time couldn't have been that high."

If anything, Rolfing added, the PGA Tour should pay attention and try to make the best scenario it can to begin both their seasons here with back-to-back events as agreed upon.

"To me, the biggest issue is that the PGA Tour has spent so much time and effort on the end of the season (FedEx Cup, for example) that they have sacrificed the beginning of the season. That's the bottom line," Rolfing said.

"They now have to figure out, what are we going to do to start our season with a bang. Look at the NFL. They begin their season with the defending Super Bowl champions. Other than the Super Bowl, opening night's about the biggest game of the (regular) season. They start off huge."

Bill Kwon can be reached at billkwonrhs@aol.com.