Sports Watch
KAPALUA, Maui - Tigermania. Tiger tales still circulating on the PGA Tour
Tiger Woods isn't here for the Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua International, but the young golf sensation is still a hot topic of conversation.
"See? We're talking about Tiger Woods and he's not even here,'' said Davis Love III, one of 56 pros in the $1.2-million event that began its 72-hole run today at both the Plantation and Bay courses.
In a way, Tigermania is good for the attention it brings to the PGA Tour, according to Love, who lost in a playoff to Woods in the Las Vegas Invitational a month ago.
''He's definitely for real,'' Love said. ''He's an extremely talented player and has a great amount of confidence. He's on one of those streaks where he doesn't even remember what it's like to play badly. At the Tour Championship he was shocked when he had a bad round.''
Love's got news for him. He'd better get used to it.
''He's going to find it hard to get used to the idea that you can play very well and still not win," Love said. ''On the tour, even when you do your best it's not going to be good enough. There will be guys who're going to play better than him and beat him.
''Tiger, I don't think, understands that yet. No matter how good he is, he ain't going to beat us every week or be in the top 10 every week.
''He's new. He doesn't know what's going on out here on the tour yet. He's going to learn.''
EVEN without Woods, who stole most of golf's headlines during the final six weeks of the tour, tournament chairman Mark Rolfing feels that this is one of the best fields in the 15-year history of the Kapalua event.
''It doesn't have a Greg Norman or a Tiger Woods,'' Rolfing said, ''but I think in terms of depth - when you look at how many of the top 30 off the money list are here and when you look at how many winners are here from the PGA Tour this year - it is a fabulous field.''
Nine of the PGA Tour's 13 first-time winners are here.
''I'm so happy to see guys like Justin Leonard (one of the first-time winners, who finished 11th on the money list with $943,140). He could have gotten a lot of money playing some other event. But he came here.''
Interestingly as well, the top five driving leaders of the year - John Daly, John Adams, Fred Couples, Love and Tim Herron, in that order - are also entered.
Any favorites?
Rolfing, who'll be covering holes 10, 13 and 16 on national TV for ABC, feels the player to watch is Love. Not just because of his track record at Kapalua, where he leads all competitors in earnings with $519,425 in nine appearances.
Just a hunch, according to Rolfing. ''When he won in 1992, he had the same kind of year that he had this year.''
IF not Love, Rolfing likes Daly's chances, especially if the conditions remain calm in the final two rounds at the par-73 Plantation Course with its wide-open fairways.
''When the wind's blowing, the guy who hits the best irons wins. Now, I think power is going to win. The big hitters will hit driver and wedges or 9-irons.''
Rolfing hopes Daly plays well.
''He's making a big statement by coming here where it all began. I think he wanted to make a statement to himself.''
''It,'' of course, refers to the time Daly walked off the course midway in the second round during the 1993 Kapalua International, which resulted in a suspension by the PGA.
Daly hadn't been back since.
''He was worried we didn't want him to come back,'' Rolfing said.
A gallery favorite, Daly need not have worried. He got a sponsor's exemption despite finishing 171st on the money list.
''I think the Tiger Woods thing made an impact on him,'' said Rolfing, who feels Daly misses the notoriety of being golf's most talked-about golfer before you know who.
There you go again. Somehow, that kid's name keeps coming up.