Golf

Serious Fun

Fly-fishing buddies Nick Faldo and Huey Lewis were serious about their golf at Pebble Beach—an obvious reflection of Faldo's grim-faced influence on the constantly smiling rock-and-roller. "We have a team motto," Lewis said. "We're not out here to have a good time. This is all business."

Apparently it was. Faldo and Lewis were among the pro-am leaders throughout the tournament and finished tied for sixth, seven strokes back of winners Bruce Vaughan and Masashi Yamada.

Faldo and Lewis met in 1992 at a Lewis concert in London. They played golf the next day near Faldo's home in Wentworth and have since fished at Lewis's Montana ranch. "I hate to ruin his reputation, but he's really a good guy," Lewis said of Faldo last Friday. "And he's flat funny." Faldo semiagreed. "That's me," he said.

Lewis, whose primary residence is north of San Francisco in the Marin County town of Ross, entered the tournament with a 15 handicap but ended up improving his and Faldo's team score by 21 strokes. Faldo was nine under on his own ball. "There are worse sandbaggers in this tournament than me," said Lewis, who had tried to persuade the handicap committee to give him only 14 strokes. Noting that Bill Murray was getting 18 strokes, he said, "Have you seen his swing?"

Watson's Woes

When Tom Watson opened with a pair of 67s at the Phoenix Open two weeks ago, he looked like the Tom Watson of old. A pitiful putter in recent years, in Phoenix Watson gave much of the credit to the Ram "Little Z" putter he was using. "When I was a kid," he said, "I putted with a brass-headed putter—a PG150—and I made everything with it. This is bringing me back to my childhood."

But two poor putting rounds on the weekend at Phoenix brought that second childhood to a close and led Watson to change putters. In the AT&T he used a Tad Moore blade, and except for one throwback round at Spyglass Hill in which he shot 65 with only 25 putts, he performed like the Tom Watson whose flat-stick woes have become all too familiar.

"I took 12 putters to Florida recently and brought back three," Watson said on Friday. "They all have different characteristics. When I go from one to another, it's like going from a blonde to a redhead to a brunette. You wouldn't go from a blonde to a blonde. I used a brunette."

The brunette was not kind to Watson in the opening round at Poppy Hills. He three-putted three times, four-putted once. He still shot 70, though, and so remained faithful. Friday was Watson's good day, but on Saturday at Pebble Beach he was jilted. Missing two putts inside three feet, Watson went from 12 under and a tie for the lead to eight under and five shots back. Sunday brought more rejection. The lone bright spot in the day was a chip-in for birdie at the 16th. He finished with a 72 and a tie for 13th.