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Ivory Powers School's out on which college yields the most Tour talent
Before Matt Kuchar arrived, Stewart Cink, David Duval and Larry
Mize all played for Georgia Tech. Does that make the Yellow
Jackets' program the most productive in the college game? Not a
chance. As the chart below shows, Florida, with Mark
Calcavecchia and Dudley Hart among its 12 alumni on Tour, is pro
golf's leading talent factory. Still, the Gator alums aren't the
most successful class of 1998. That honor goes to Texas's 10-man
posse, which has earned more than $2 million, although Ben
Crenshaw hasn't won a dime. The Longhorns' stampede features
money leader Justin Leonard, No. 12 Bob Estes, No. 89 Omar
Uresti and Tom Kite, who ranks 93th.
For career achievement, check out Wake Forest, a.k.a. the Arnold
Palmer Golf Academy. With 104 Tour titles since 1955, the Demon
Deacons, who have sent Palmer Scholarship recipients Scott Hoch,
Curtis Strange and Lanny Wadkins to the pros, lead the nation in
that department. Ohio State's Buckeyes can boast 86 Tour
victories, including 19 majors. Of course, Jack Nicklaus
accounts for 70 of those wins and all the majors except Tom
Weiskopf's '73 British Open title.
Who's No. 1 all-around? Our choice is Houston, which won 16
national titles between 1954 and '85 and has sent more than 70
players to the Tour. With Bill Rogers (1981 British Open), Fuzzy
Zoeller ('84 U.S. Open), Fred Couples ('92 Masters) and Steve
Elkington ('94 PGA), Houston's the only school to have a
different alum win each major. "I didn't need Nicklaus," said
Dave Williams, who coached the Cougars from 1952 to '87 and
often stocked his team with enough talent for two NCAA winners.
SCHOOL 1998 ALLTIME
TOUR NCAA TOUR
PLAYERS MONEY TITLES TITLES MAJORS MONEY
Florida 12 $1,123,433 3 36 4 $24,642,801
Houston 11 $1,251,565 16 70 6 $42,064,218
Texas 10 $2,100,112 2 53 5 $35,822,802
Wake Forest 9 $1,065,382 9 104 9 $38,885,584
Oklahoma St. 9 $1,396,823 8 28 1 $20,580,172
Arizona St. 8 $1,576,291 2 34 0 $26,981,668
USC 7 $704,752 0 23 4 $16,734,898
BYU 7 $267,727 1 32 2 $15,053,789
Ohio St. 6 $732,525 2 86 19 $19,989,351
New Mexico 6 $602,080 0 3 0 $7,780,864
COLOR PHOTO: LANE STEWART HOOKIN' HORNS Kite (left) and Crenshaw led Texas in '72. [Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw holding trophy]
TIGER CUBS
Are NCAA teams teeming with Tour-caliber talent? The following
are the PGA Tour and collegiate leaders in four major
statistical categories.
Scoring
Tiger Woods 69.81
Rory Sabbatini, Arizona 70.72
Driving Accuracy
Fred Funk 81.1%
John Engler, Clemson 90.2%
Greens in Regulation
Steve Flesch 72.6%
John Engler, Clemson 85.1%
Putts per G.I.R.
John Daly, John Huston 1.699
Jeremy Parrott, Georgia 1.775
Early Return$
Justin Leonard tops the money list with $1.04 million, but the
season's young. Here are last year's leaders after Greensboro
and at year's end.
GREENSBORO FINAL
Elkington $1.06M Woods $2.07M
Woods 966,350 Duval 1.89M
O'Meara 900,343 Love 1.64M
Faxon 818,420 Furyk 1.62M
Parnevik 771,730 Leonard 1.59M
S'kowski 638,098 Hoch 1.39M
Hoch 633,815 Norman 1.35M
Price 617,440 Elkington 1.32M
Appleby 576,496 Els 1.24M
Jones 504,290 Faxon 1.23M
The Number
69.86
LPGA-leading stroke average of Karrie Webb, who's attempting to
become the first woman to average below 70 for a season.
