The Week Jan. 2-8

Big Cheese
Steve Stricker more than doubled his 2000 earnings by winning $1
million in Melbourne.

PGA Stricker's victory--he beat Pierre Fulke of Sweden 2 and 1
in the final of the Accenture Match Play Championship at
Metropolitan Golf Club--was his first in his last 89 starts....
The only way Stricker can qualify for the April 5-8 Masters is
to remain among the top three on the money list through March
4.... Tiger Woods skipped the Match Play, but World Cup
organizers say he will defend the title he won with David Duval
last month in Buenos Aires. This year's World Cup is Nov. 15-18
at Taiheiyo Golf Club in Shizuoka, Japan.... Woods is not atop
the Tour's money list for the first time in 70 weeks, since
September 1999, when he overtook Duval by winning the NEC
Invitational.... Curtis Strange, 45, failed to qualify for full
exempt status for the first time in 23 years and declined to use
the one-time exemption given to the Tour's top 50 career money
winners. Strange plans to concentrate on captaining this year's
Ryder Cup team and use the exemption in 2002.

LPGA This week's $1 million lid-lifter at Grand Cypress Resort
in Orlando, which features Karrie Webb and 20 of the other top
25 players on last year's money list, recently underwent its
third name change in less than a year. Originally the JCPenney
Classic, the event morphed into the LPGA.com Classic and five
weeks ago was rechristened the YourLife Vitamins LPGA Classic.

SENIOR Tom Watson, who was so offended by CBS announcer Gary
McCord's remarks during the 1994 Masters that he wrote Augusta
National officials asking that McCord be banned from the
telecast (he was, and has never returned), has invited McCord to
play in his annual charity exhibition at Kansas City's Blue
Hills Country Club on June 19.... Senior prize money is up 11%,
to $60 million, in 2001.... Roger Maltbie (June 30) and Fuzzy
Zoeller (Nov. 11) become eligible for the tour this year.

ALSO Fulke nearly doubled his number of Ryder Cup points and now
leads the European standings by more than 200 points over
runner-up Lee Westwood.

COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID CALLOW Hart trouble Dudley Hart's '01 season got off to a rough start in Melbourne, where he was beaten by Nick O'Hern in the third round.

UP and Down

Steve Stricker Hal Sutton
Carlsbad in February Melbourne in January
Blonds have more fun Black is beautiful
A-Rod Joanna Jagoda
Lady Precept Fat Lady