Sorry, Dad: The Buick Invitational is one of the few Tour stops
that set aside spots for amateurs each year. Last week Charley
Hoffman and Magnus Carlsson, two collegians who finished one-two
in a qualifier in December, got to tee it up with the big boys.
Hoffman shot 74-74 to tie Fred Couples but missed the cut.
Carlsson, whose parents and coach flew in from Sweden to root
for him (his golf-pro dad was his caddie), was all smiles after
a first-round 76, saying, "It's a thrill to play with the
greatest golfers in the world." But Mag ballooned to 86 on
Friday and finished dead last.
Oh, What a Tangled Web Site: Mac
O'Grady tells SI that his long-awaited Web page, now due this
summer, will reveal "everything people want to know about the
golf swing." The Internet's main virtue is its freedom from
advertisers, says O'Grady. "That means I can give you reality
with no slants, no biases—my uncensored, unfiltered,
unsanitized and unhomogenized viewpoints. Trust me, I'll even
blast myself."
It's a Drag: Do athletes in any other sport smoke
during competition? The jarring sight of John Daly (left) or
Fuzzy Zoeller lighting up on the course sets a poor example for
kids and does nothing for golf's image. "It's a bad habit, and I
know it. I've even heard comments from the gallery—fans telling
me to quit smoking," says Tim Herron, one of the few Tour
players willing to discuss the matter. "But it doesn't make me a
criminal, does it?" No, but it could make a violator of Zoeller,
who lit up perilously close to the door of the Golfer's Grill at
Torrey Pines. Whether nicotine-addled pros know it or not,
smoking indoors in public places is illegal in California.
O.K., But You Make the Measurement: At an Arizona course called Glen
Canyon, a local rule reads: "If your ball lands within a club
length of a rattlesnake, you are allowed to move your ball."
Does everyone there use the long putter?
Flubbed Chip: Ten years
ago Chip Beck finished second on the money list. Five years ago
the genial former Georgia Bulldog was second in the Masters.
Beck has four career victories, and once shot 59 at the Las
Vegas Invitational. Yet his career is now Kevorkian fodder. With
an 82-WD at the Buick, Beck has missed 27 straight cuts and won
an average of $280.34 in his last 38 starts. That's about half
the weekly minimum wage for a Tour caddie.
Alltime Leader: When
Byron Nelson won $63,335 in 1945, his earnings represented 14.5%
of the Tour's total purse for the season. A player that dominant
in 1998 would bank at least $13.6 million.
Issue date: February 16, 1998
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