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Ryder Cup revenge Europeans knock off Americans at WGC Match Play
Posted: Friday February 25, 2000 01:22 PM
Is a serious dose of Ryder Cup revenge at work at the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship? It appears that way! The European pros beat the Americans in 11 of the first 13 head-to-head matches. On Thursday, Miguel Angel Jiminez beat Tom Lehman 4 and 3 and Darren Clarke thumped Mark O'Meara 5 and 4. Maybe the assumption that the U.S. has a decided edge in the singles portion of the biennial matches should be reassessed.
Campbell may miss MastersMichael Campbell's first round loss to Tiger Woods at Match Play Championships definitely hurt his chances of getting into the Masters. The 31-year-old had won New Zealander three of his last four tournaments and is the leading money winner on both the Australasian and European tours. But to get into the field he will need to rise from his 65th position on the World Ranking. Only the top 50 as of March 6 get automatic invitations to the Augusta. Campbell is going back to Austrailia to play in the ANZ Championship next week, but even a victory will not lift him high enough. His remaining hopes are either a special invitation from the Masters committee, which could come as late as the week before the event, or a victory in next month's Players Championship, which would carry a three-year exemption into the Masters.
Try, try againKirk Triplett's first career victory on the PGA Tour -- at last week's Nissan Open -- came in his 266th start. But several players since 1970 have taken longer to record their first win, including Loren Roberts, Chris Perry and Mike Reid. The longest recorded dry spell before a maiden victory belongs to Brad Bryant -- Dr. Dirt -- who won the 1995 National Car Rental Classic in his 475th career start. Sports Illustrated senior writer Jaime Diaz covers the golf beat and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's Pro Golf Weekly.
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