The Week Aug. 24-30

In a League of His Own

Tiger Woods looks like Mike these days. Jordan won when he was
off too. Woods shot a two-over 37 on the back nine on Sunday and
had a three-over 39 coming home in the PGA three weeks ago. That
Woods prevailed both times speaks to how much better he's
playing than his peers--if peers is the right word--and evokes
memories of MJ laid up, sick, in Utah. With Woods, as with
Jordan, we are left to wonder, Is he human or just toying with us?

PGA If Woods, who beat Phil Mickelson by a stroke at the NEC
Invitational for his fifth Tour win of the year, paid his
caddie, Steve Williams, the standard 10% of his $1 million
check, Williams's week was nearly as lucrative as that of Dottie
Pepper, who earned $105,000 for winning the Oldsmobile
Classic.... Jack Nicklaus was 23 years, eight months and 30 days
old--exactly the same age as Woods was on Sunday--when he won
the 1963 Sahara Invitational for his fifth victory of the
season. No one younger has won as often in a year.... Notah
Begay, whose first victory, at the inaugural Reno-Tahoe Open,
included a course-record 63, is the first Native American to win
a Tour event since Rod Curl at the 1974 Colonial.

LPGA Pepper's victory at Walnut Hills Country Club in East
Lansing, Mich., which came by two shots over Kelli Kuehne, was
her 16th and moved her to within seven points of induction into
the tour's Hall of Fame.... Karrie Webb tied for third and has
18 top 10s in 20 starts in '99.... At the LPGA sectional Q
school at Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Fla., U.S.
Amateur champ Dorothy Delasin was one of 30 players to advance
to the Oct. 19-22 finals in Daytona Beach. Jenny Chuasiriporn,
the '98 U.S. Open runner-up, missed the cut but will try again
at the second and last sectional qualifier Sept. 7-10 at Mission
Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

SENIOR Jim Ahern became the seventh Monday qualifier in tour
history to go on to win. He beat Hale Irwin in a playoff at the
AT&T Canada Senior Open Championship at Richelieu Valley Golf
Club in Montreal.... Irwin broke Lee Trevino's record of 11
consecutive rounds in the 60s, set in 1992, with an opening 67,
then shot a 65 to extend the streak to 13 before faltering with
a 71 last Saturday.

ALSO David Berganio, the 1991 and '93 U.S. Public Links champ,
won the Nike Permian Basin Open at the Club at Mission Dorado in
Odessa, Texas, to move from 61st to 22nd on the money list with
seven events left. The top 15 get PGA Tour cards.

COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY AL GOLDIS/AP Goooood going! Pepper got out of a pickle when she canned a 45-foot birdie putt from off the green on the 72nd hole.

UP and Down

Tiger Woods Mark O'Meara
Career majors Career money list
Tom Watson Hale Irwin
Ryder Cup Walker Cup
Kelli Kuehne Se Ri Pak