The Week March 28-April 3

--Party Pooper--First Phil Mickelson stops Tiger's streak; then
he bursts Gary Nicklaus's balloon.

--Major Improvement--Tom Kite clipping Larry Nelson and Tom
Watson in OT--that's entertainment.

--Green Monster--Padraig Harrington preps for his first Masters
with his second Euro tour win, in Sao Paulo.

PGA Had Nicklaus won the BellSouth Classic, he and Jack would
have become the fifth father-son winners in Tour history....
Mickelson's victory was his 15th.... Although David Duval
remains No. 2 in the World Ranking, the BellSouth marked the
one-year anniversary of his last Tour win.... Augusta National
caddie Carl Jackson, who was on Ben Crenshaw's bag when Crenshaw
won in 1995 and had worked every Masters since '72, is missing
this year's tournament. He's being treated for colon cancer....
British bookmaker William Hill has made Tiger Woods a 2-to-1
favorite to win the Masters, the lowest pretournament odds ever.
Duval is next lowest at 12 to 1. Hill also dropped the odds on
Woods's winning the Grand Slam from 250 to 1 to 33 to 1.

SENIOR The Tradition was the first Senior major for Kite, who
didn't win a major on the regular Tour until his 67th try ('92
U.S. Open).... Nicklaus and Watson, who argued against Casey
Martin's right to ride, used carts in Scottsdale.... Gary Player
on the lengthening of the par-4 17th hole at Augusta National:
"What they did was a crime." Nicklaus on all the alterations to
the course: "I don't like what they've done at all."...A Las
Vegas court has sentenced Billy Casper's son David, 26, to 25
years in prison on robbery charges.

LPGA Dottie Pepper has joined the long list of tour pros who
have had their vision corrected by laser surgery.

ALSO Englishman Tom Horton--who else?--won the European Senior
tour lid-lifter, the Barbados Open. Horton, 58, has won the
opener and topped the tour's money list for four consecutive
years.... Harrington, a 28-year-old from Ireland, has had eight
seconds but only one other win, the '96 Spanish Open.

COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY E.M. PIO RODA DOWN THE DRAIN The final round of the BellSouth Classic was washed out by 1 1/2 inches of rain.

UP and Down

Gary Nicklaus Jack Nicklaus
Billy Casper David Casper
You win, you're in World Ranking
Tom Kite in Senior majors Tom Kite in majors
Mark O'Meara Ken Venturi