Brace Yourself: How to follow up the most lucrative season ever
by a female golfer? Annika Sorenstam changed everything. She
appeared at the Los Angeles Women's Championship in new Nike
shoes, with new Callaway X-12 irons, hitting a new ball, the
Maxfli Revolution—and hardly anyone noticed. Press, players and
fans alike were agog at her new braces. "I can't eat pizza,
potato chips or corn on the cob," said a smiling Sorenstam, who
tied for sixth in L.A., two shots behind winner Dale Eggeling.
Maybe Sorenstam's arms were tired: She's spending an extra half
hour each day brushing and flossing. Clinton's Brain: Asked what
golf advice he would give President Clinton, sports psychologist
Bob Rotella says, "If he were one of my pro players, I would
say, 'Don't play. Deal with your personal problems first.' When
I saw that he was playing golf the other day, I thought, You've
got to be kidding."
Lee's Not Pleased: If the old guard gets its
way, chairman of the PGA Tour policy board Richard Ferris might
be on his way out. In testimony at the Casey Martin trial Ferris
said the Senior tour, on which carts are legal, "is not
competition at its highest level. The Senior tour is nostalgia."
That left several Seniors, including Lee Trevino,
steamed. "If that's what he said, he doesn't deserve to be on
our board," Trevino said at last week's GTE Classic, where he
came in nine shots behind winner Jim Albus. "We're out there
playing for blood." Beats the Weather at Pebble: The New York
Times reports that the Siberian equivalent of golf features
six-foot corkscrews and the heady taste of worms. "If there is a
pastime here to compare to the American male's seemingly
bottomless love of golf, it is undoubtedly ice fishing," the
Times reports from Tomsk. Russian men huddle on frozen rivers,
use huge corkscrews to cut holes in river ice, and keep bait
worms warm by storing them in their mouths. "If you had ever
done it even once, you wouldn't have to ask why," says one
Tomskovite. Dirty Dozen: Jarmo Sandelin of Sweden was seven
under during last week's Alfred Dunhill South Africa PGA in
Johannesburg. One hole later he was one over. With his ball in a
bank of plants, Sandelin took what a local reporter called
"eight stabs and sclaffs" and made an octuple-bogey 12. Reckless
Driver: Many golfers have noticed that titanium drivers tend to
strike sparks when they brush against rough or sandy soil.
"Titanium is flammable," says Clay Long, vice president of
research at Cobra Golf. "What happens is that a little bit of
the metal at the surface actually burns." Long warns users not
to practice their swings at the gas station or anywhere else
near combustible fumes. "That wouldn't be smart at all," he
says.
Issue date: February 23, 1998
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