The Week Feb. 1-7
--Never a Doubt
Be honest, at what point in the final round at Pebble Beach did
you say, "Tiger's got no shot"?
--Fluke This
Bruce Fleisher's W at the Royal Caribbean Classic was his eighth
in 34 Senior starts.
--Check, Mate
The $232,865 Lucas Parsons won in the Holden Invitational was
the largest golf prize ever in Australia, and less than one
third of Woods's take at Pebble.
--PGA With the $720,000 he won in the AT&T, Woods moved to
second on the career money list, only $31,519 behind Davis Love
III, who took over the top spot just two weeks ago....
Four members of the 1994-95 Stanford team played at Pebble.
Besides Woods, Notah Begay tied for fourth while Casey Martin
missed the cut and amateur Jerry Chang finished second with
Woods in the pro-am. Only Will Yanagisawa, who is playing the
mini-tours, was missing....
Bob Murphy, introducing Martin and Begay at the Feb. 1 Northern
California Golf Association Writers dinner: "Ladies and
gentlemen, one player who drives and one who can't."...
The Ryder Cup play-for-pay controversy has been resolved, for
now. The PGA announced that for each of last year's team members
and captain Ben Crenshaw it is giving $100,000 to charities of
their choice and another 100K to their alma maters.
--LPGA After a two-week layoff the tour resumes this week at the
Los Angeles Women's Championship, beginning a five-tournament,
20,000-mile road trip that includes stops in Hawaii and
Australia.
--SENIOR Tom Kite was never a factor in his tour debut, tying
for ninth....
Fleisher has cleaned up on the course but not off it. He didn't
pick up a single new endorsement deal during the off-season....
The PGA has banned carts in the April 13-16 PGA Seniors
Championship. The only other Senior event without carts is the
U.S. Open....
Straight talk from Allen Doyle: "I don't know how [the Tradition
and the Senior Players] are passing themselves off as majors."
--ALSO Let history record that the first Buy.com (formerly Nike)
tour event, the Florida Classic, in Gainesville, was won by
34-year-old journeyman Fran Quinn of Worcester, Mass....
Parsons, a 30-year-old Australian, lives 10 minutes from the
Lakes Golf Club in Sydney, where the Holden is held.
COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY J.D. CUBAN GOOD WAY TO LOSE A LIMB Mark O'Meara couldn't see his way clear of the trees as he attempted, unsuccessfully, to get out of jail during the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
UP and Down
Five Six
Pebble Beach in June Pebble Beach in February
Bill Murray Ray Romano
Iron woods Fairway woods
Notah Begay John Daly