Notebook

Show and Tell
SPECIAL EFFECTS

Give last week's PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando a perfect
score. We buttonholed 20 showgoers and asked them to identify
the sexiest new product they had seen on the vast Orange County
Convention Center floor. All 20 turned into P-P-P-Porky Pig.
Nothing. Not one answer. There was no ball, club or gizmo that
really turned them on. All right, then. Maybe '99 won't be a
breakthrough year, but we thought there was some pretty cool
stuff at the show. Here are the items that made our most-wanted
list. --Gary Van Sickle

View to a Kill
The GolfCam ($5,995), from GolfCam Inc., looks like the
reflecting ball from a disco hall but is really a high-tech
video camera that attaches to the roof of a cart, tracks a
golfer with a laser (the beam locks on to the color of his
shirt) and films him swinging. Next time your pals in the
grillroom ask about your round, hand them the cassette and tell
'em you'll be back in two beers for postround interviews.

Stand by Me
Shout it from the rooftops: The mystery of the double shoulder
strap has been solved! The Balance Max bag from Belding ($139)
borrowed from the backpack, ski and footwear industries to find
solutions for every carry-stand bag glitch. A unique, one-piece
harness, with swivel buckles and small elastic shock absorbers,
ends strap wrestling. In a nutshell: This is the best carry bag
ever, by a mile.

King Pong
We fell for TaylorMade's Nubbins putter ($129) because, unlike
the GolfCam, it's lovably low tech. The nubby, rubbery material
on the insert is the same stuff that's used on the face of a
Ping-Pong paddle. A golf ball stays on the putter face a
fraction of a second longer and therefore spins less. The
Nubbins must work: Mark O'Meara (Masters and British Open champ)
and Lee Janzen (U.S. Open winner) are using it on Tour.

The Shining
We hate to halt play on account of darkness. Now, thanks to the
GlowOwl ball, we won't have to. Unlike its toylike predecessors,
the GlowOwl is an honest-to-goodness regulation two-piece ball.
Its cover glows eerily (for up to three hours) when charged with
a black light. The GlowOwl isn't cheap ($29.95 for two balls
plus light), and mosquito repellent is not included.

Davies vs. Trevino
BATTLE OF THE SEXES, PART 2

Lee Trevino had just played an exhibition round last week in
Perth, Australia, when, goaded by a reporter, he launched a Down
Under-cooked offensive in golf's Battle of the Sexes.

"If the women want to play with the men, they've got to tee it
up where the men tee it up," Trevino said. Citing Laura Davies,
who did just that and finished last at the November 1998 Johnnie
Walker Super Tour event, Trevino went on to say, "She can't beat
those men. Forget it. She can't even beat the women now."

After shooting an 80 in last Saturday's final round of the
Office Depot in West Palm Beach, Fla., Davies simmered when told
of Trevino's comments. "I have no idea why he would want to say
that, apart from the fact that he's a complete tosser [jerk] and
can't play anymore himself," said Davies, who added that she's
met Trevino only once. "Maybe he had a bad day."

Or the germ of a good idea. Lee's decrees remind us of something
said by the original sensitive guy, the late Bobby Riggs ("The
best way to handle women is to keep them pregnant and
barefoot"). A quarter century after aging hustler Riggs, 55, was
disgraced by spitfire Billie Jean King, 29, in the Astrodome,
aging hustler Trevino, 59, ought to play spitfire Davies, 35,
for $200,000.

"I'll take him on," says Davies.

Alert the sponsors. Call ABC. Find Howard Cosell's thesaurus.
Houston, we have a marketing opportunity. Your move, Lee.

FOUR COLOR PHOTOS: BEN VAN HOOK (4)

COLOR PHOTO: GARY GAYNOR

COLOR PHOTO: TIM ROGERS

B/W PHOTO: LECLEAR DYKHAIZEN (INSET)

COLOR PHOTO: PHELAN M. EBENHACK

Threesomes
What do these players have in common?

--Arnold Palmer
--Lee Trevino
--Gary Player

They're the only players who have been shut out twice in the
12-year-old Senior Skins Game.

Feedback
What's more difficult: shooting a 59, pitching a perfect game or
bowling a 300?

Perfect game 58%
Shooting 59 35%
Bowling 300 6%

--Based on 31,992 responses to our informal survey

Next question: Who do you think would win a head-to-head match,
played from the same tees, between Laura Davies and Lee Trevino?
To vote, go to www.cnnsi.com/golf.

Numbers

The much-discussed World Ranking uses a complex formula to award
points for each start and is based on performance over a
two-year period. Using the same formula, we calculated the
Ranking over one year, from Feb. 1, 1998, through last week's
tournaments.

1-YR. RANK 2-YR. RANK/AVG. 1-YR. AVG.

1. David Duval 2/11.2 17.2
2. Mark O'Meara 3/10.2 14.4
3. Tiger Woods 1/11.8 13.2
4. Lee Westwood 6/9.0 12.6
5. Davis Love III 4/9.6 11.8
6. Vijay Singh 9/8.7 11.3
7. C. Montgomerie 8/8.7 10.7
8. Ernie Els 5/9.1 9.9
9. Jim Furyk 10/7.5 9.6
10. Nick Price 7/8.8 9.3

Faces

Christina Monteiro, Las Vegas
Monteiro, a sophomore at Arizona, won the prestigious Arizona
Silver Belle Championship at the Karsten Course at Arizona State
in Scottsdale. She shot a five-over-par 221 (75-74-72) to beat
Hilary Homeyer, a junior and the No. 1 player at Stanford, by
one shot.

Kip Doezema, Scottsdale
Doezema, 26, made a double eagle by holing a five-iron shot on
the 546-yard 4th at the Golf Club at Eagle Mountain in Fountain
Hills, Ariz. Doezema's father, Bill, was in FACES IN THE CROWD
(Nov. 18, 1968, right), also for a double eagle.

Carl Alexander, Winter Park, Fla.
Alexander, 32, won the PGA Stroke Play Championship at PGA
National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. An assistant pro
at both Orlando's Grand Cypress Resort and Pine Hollow Country
Club in East Norwich, N.Y., Alexander is the reigning
Metropolitan PGA section champion.