The Week Feb. 16-22

A TOAST TO THE COAST

In recent years, as the West Coast swing became as hopeless as
the Hope, we basically agreed with those who said that the
season didn't really start until Doral. Today we have a
question: Does the swing have to end? From David Duval's 59 to
dramatic wins by Tiger Woods and Ernie Els to the anticipation
for this week's World Match Play, we're picking up good
vibrations. Now if the top seeds can make it to the weekend....

PGA Ted Tryba tied for second behind Els in the Nissan Open but
has made a big move in '99, jumping to 113th in the World
Ranking after starting the year 173rd....

Despite Duval's 59 at the Hope, Woods's 62 in the Buick and
Tryba's 61 at Riviera, the overall scoring average of 71.26 is
the highest since the introduction of adjusted scoring in 1988.

SENIOR If Bruce Fleisher had won the GTE Classic in Tampa--he
came in second to Larry Nelson--he would've become only the
second Senior to win in three consecutive weeks. Chi Chi
Rodriguez did it in 1987....

Hale Irwin tied for fourth and Gil Morgan finished 40th, marking
the fourth straight event in which at least one of them was
entered and neither won. The two had just one such streak in '98
and none in '97.

LPGA Alison Nicholas, who shot a final-round 73 in bad weather
to win the Hawaiian Ladies Open by a stroke over Moira Dunn and
Annette DeLuca, hadn't won since the '97 U.S. Open--the longest
dry spell after winning the national championship this side of
Lauri Merten's. Merten, the '93 Open champ, hasn't won since....

Michelle McGann went from a tie for the lead to 34th after a
closing 81. A diabetic, McGann was to have an insulin pump
surgically inserted into her body this week.

ALSO The Mississippi Gulf Coast Open, which Joel Edwards won by
a shot, was the last Nike tour event until the March 18-21
Monterrey (Mexico) Open....

Paul Lawrie's seven-stroke win at the Qatar Masters was the
largest margin of victory on the European tour since Mathias
Gronberg won the European Open by 10 shots last August.

COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT BECK Colorful character A day after flirting with a 59, Tryba blended back into the scenery with a 72.

UP AND DOWN

Match play Medal play
Shigeki Maruyama Jumbo Ozaki
Johnny Bench John Brodie
Curtis Strange Peter Kostis
Taking dead aim Aligned by a caddie