If It Isn't One Thing, It's Another

Skip Kendall's week at the Nissan Open was a memorable one, though he would just as soon forget it.

After his practice round on Monday, Kendall left the Riviera grounds and was cruising leisurely down Sunset Boulevard in a courtesy car provided by the tournament sponsor. "I was kind of zonin', checking things out," Kendall says. Unfortunately Kendall didn't notice when the car in front of him stopped to make a left turn. He crunched it. No one was hurt, but Kendall did some serious damage to his shiny new Sentra. "I called up the guy in charge and said, 'Bud, your car's only got 10 miles on it, but it's not going any farther,' " he says. Tournament officials were understanding and gave him another car. "I couldn't believe that." says Kendall, 30, who has spent most of his eight years as a pro on mini-tours and the Nike tour.

Late that night Kendall awoke in fantastic pain, though it was unrelated to the possibility of having to cover the deductible on the $16,000 Sentra's repair costs. "It felt like someone was stabbing me with a knife in my mouth," says Kendall. On Tuesday morning Kendall had root canal for a toothache, which he says was not caused by the crash, and he spent most of Wednesday trying to recover. He shot a 283 to finish 46th. At least the early-week disasters provided some perspective. "I definitely found out there are worse things than hitting bad golf shots," says Kendall.