TV never would have cut away from a playoff involving Tiger Woods, and having a
cable network dis your top player -- as ESPN did by pulling the plug on Annika
Sorenstam on Sunday -- is the ultimate indignity for the
LPGA.
NEXT UP
PGA: The Players Championship
LPGA: Welch's/Circle K Championship
European: Madeira Island Open
INSTANT POLL
Thanks for your efforts up until now, ladies and gentlemen, but the real golf
season starts this week with the Players Championship, and it's about time.
We've had all the Honda Classics, Takefuji Classics and Senior Skins Games we
can handle. The Players at TPC at Sawgrass is the gateway to the major
championship season, and March Madness continues the following week with the
Nabisco Championship. The Masters is a tantalizing three weeks distant. This is
what we've been waiting for, and this is what we've learned during the early
season filler.
Solving the Case of the Shrinking Course may not be as complicated as
previously thought. Bay Hill neutralized all the new technology simply by
firming up its greens to oh-my-God! levels and growing gnarly rough. The result?
Tiger Woods (13 under par) was the only player to finish in double-digit
red numbers, mostly because the field hit 56.9% of the greens in regulation, the
lowest percentage on Tour since the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach (51.4%).
Woods doesn't slump in January and February, he just doesn't get serious until
the Tour hits O-Town (Tiger-speak for Orlando.) Anybody want to bet against
Woods's sweeping the Players and the Masters, as he did last year? Didn't think
so.
Annika Sorenstam remains the player to beat in women's golf after winning two
of her first three starts worldwide, but a shaky putter remains her Achilles'
heel. Sorenstam would be 3 for 3 in 2002 had she not ballooned to a final-round
76 at last week's LPGA Ping Banner Health, (no) thanks to 33 putts, including
seven misses inside 10 feet. That opened the door for Rachel Teske, who beat
Sorenstam on the second hole of sudden death.
Forget overhyped Aaron Baddeley; the Aussie to watch is 21-year-old Adam
Scott. Last week he earned his second Euro tour victory, the Qatar Masters,
which elevated him to 50th in the World Ranking, good for a last-minute berth in
the Players. This classy long-knocker is already exempt at Augusta, where he'll
be a dark
horse.
There's nothing wrong with the Senior tour that a little star power can't cure.
After Tom Kite won twice, including a thrilling playoff duel with Tom Watson,
and warhorse Hale Irwin had a pair of victories, the Seniors suddenly seemed
relevant again. Of course, then Dana Quigley won last weekend.
O.B.
Jesper Parnevik's nannies -- a pair of fetching Swedes -- have been getting
a lot of notice lately, and apparently one of them, Elin, has caught the eye of
golf's most eligible bachelor, Tiger Woods. With Parnevik taking the week off,
Elin spent the week in Woods's gallery at Bay Hill, leading to
much whispering among Tour wives about a budding romance. On Sunday, Woods was
spotted pulling into the players' parking lot with Elin in the passenger seat.
Former Tour player Denis Watson (referred to
as a "PGA star" in the Los Angeles Times real estate section)
and his wife, Susan Loggans, recently purchased a Malibu Colony house for close
to its $6.95 million asking price. Built in 1993, the 4,500-square-foot,
Tuscan-style house features a gym, maid/guest quarters and 32 feet of ocean
frontage. Watson, 46, had three victories on Tour, all of them in 1984, and
still plays the occasional Buy.com event. How has he landed in such swank digs?
Loggans has been named one of America's top 15 trial lawyers by the National
Law Review and has hosted a weekly TV program on Fox News.
Reigning U.S. Amateur champ Bubba Dickerson was telling fellow
competitors at Bay Hill that he intends to turn pro in time for the April 22-28
Greater Greensboro Open.
On the eve of the
LPGA's Ping Banner Health, Danielle Ammaccapane hosted a group of players at her
eponymous sports bar and grill on North Seventh Street in Phoenix. Heather
Daly-Donofrio, Wendy Doolan, Nancy Harvey and Sherri Turner, among others, were
less than impressed when Fox's celebrity boxing appeared on one of the bar's 21
TVs, but the group hooted and hollered when someone suggested a Helen Alfredsson
vs. Dottie Pepper slugfest as part of the Solheim Cup festivities.
Fans First gone astray: On Saturday a brazen
spectator sneaked onto the practice green at Moon Valley CC and began stuffing
stray balls into his pockets until Marianne Morris politely informed him that
they weren't free
souvenirs.
Thanks for your efforts up until now, ladies and gentlemen, but the real golf
season starts this week with the Players Championship, and it's about time.
We've had all the Honda Classics, Takefuji Classics and Senior Skins Games we
can handle. The Players at TPC at Sawgrass is the gateway to the major
championship season, and March Madness continues the following week with the
Nabisco Championship. The Masters is a tantalizing three weeks distant. This is
what we've been waiting for, and this is what we've learned during the early
season filler.
