Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Friday, July 30, 1999

Woods-Duval highlights
a great week of golf

SHOWDOWN time. Get ready for a lot of golf next week. The piece de resistance will be the $1.5 million shootout between Tiger Woods and David Duval on ABC-TV on Monday night.

Billed as the "Showdown at Sherwood," it features golf's two most dynamic players and the year's leading money winners on the PGA Tour.

The match-play format should make for intriguing television viewing, even if it's close-your-eyes time locally.

The winner will get $1.1 million, the loser $400,000, so it's not exactly winner-take-all.

No matter who wins, it should be great exposure for the game, especially for nongolfers. It might even pry viewers away from an Ally McBeal rerun.

For someone who has already earned $3 million this year, Duval isn't coming off too well, public relations-wise.

While he swears he never suggested a boycott in talking to Golf Digest about the Ryder Cup, Duval wants to know where the money goes.

The Ryder Cup, which will be played in September at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., is considered the most profitable golf event. Its organizer, the PGA of America, is expected to net $16 million.

The players just get a $5,000 stipend, plus expenses, to play and qualify for the limited-field NEC World Golf Championships in which the winner gets $1 million and the last-place finisher is guaranteed $54,000.

Duval and Woods want the players to determine which charities get the money. Others feel stronger, believing that they should get paid for playing in the Ryder Cup.

Well, so much for playing for pride and the U.S. of A. But one such patriot is Tom Lehman, who said he would pay to play in the Ryder Cup.

I'm with Davis Love III, who backs the sponsoring PGA of America. He said that money goes back into Tour purses and the players' retirement plan.

"There's not one player out here that hasn't been helped along in his career by the PGA of America," he said.

"If five guys say we're not going to play . . . great, because there's five more guys that are going to play."

Also on tap next week are three big local tournaments - the AT&T Aloha Section PGA Stroke Play Championship at Mauna Kea, the Hawaii State Women's Golf Association Stroke Play championship at the Mid-Pacific Country Club, both starting on Monday, and the Army Amateur later in the week at Leilehua.

Kevin Hayashi, who played in the Nike Tour event in Wichita, Kan., last week, is the defending champion in the 54-hole event on the Big Island.

Ron Castillo Sr. defends the senior title.

The HSWGA field at Mid-Pac will be one of the strongest in years.

Among those entered are defending champion Dawn Kaneshiro, 1997 winner Anna Umemura, and Mahina Ah Yuen, who captured the HSWGA Match Play Championship and the Pua Melia Invitational in her last two outings. Also, Kari Lee Williams, the reigning Jennie K. champion.

Sean Doi will defend his title in the Army Amateur.

Congrats to Gerald Isobe of Honolulu, who finished seventh in the 20th National Golf Association of the Deaf tournament in Logan, Utah, on July 16.

Isobe made the 10-man USA team for the World Deaf Golfers Championship in Sun City, South Africa, in October 2000. He also played in the 1998 world event in Pennsylvania.