Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Saturday, July 24, 1999

Don’t let TSN rating
get to you

HEY, I made a list of my favorite sports publications. Guess, which one finished last at 351st place?

The Sporting News.

Nah, nah, just kidding. I couldn't care less if TSN picked Honolulu as the worst sports town among the 351 cities it listed.

First of all, if anyone is that defensive about his home town getting dissed, he or she should get a life.

And, who cares what TSN thinks. Besides, all such best-worst lists are so subjective anyway.

Still, you've got to wonder about a list that includes such metropolises as Coraopolis (Pa.) and Kannapolis (N.C.) and that they should rank ahead of Honolulu.

And the TSN list lost all credence with me by listing Laramie, Wyo., at No. 86.

One of the only positives about the breakup of the Western Athletic Conference for the Hawaii Rainbows is that they don't have to play at Laramie anymore.

And Starkville, Miss., and Fort Collins, Colo., ahead of Tempe, Ariz.? Surely TSN jests.

HALE and hearty: Remember when some people were writing off Hale Irwin, saying that his days of dominating the Senior PGA Tour are over?

Well, guess again.

After a slow start, Irwin, who represents the Kapalua Resort on the pro tour, is making it the Hale Irwin Show again among the over-50 set.

He shot a course-record 8-under-par 64 to take the first-round lead in the Burnet Classic yesterday. Last week he won his fourth title in his last seven tournaments.

After going 0-for-7 and languishing in 15th place on the money list with $180,860, Irwin finally broke through with his first victory in the Nationwide Classic May 9. Since then he has earned $915,000, moving into second place on the money list.

Any odds against Irwin overtaking Bruce Fleisher and winning the Senior Tour money title for the third year in a row?

This time, he's not even sharing the Senior Tour act with Gil Morgan. They've been like money twins separated at birth, finishing one-two on the money list the last two years.

If anyone can slow down Hale Irwin's gravy train, it could be Tom Watson when he turns 50 and becomes eligible to play on the Senior Tour on Sept. 4.

Apparently, Watson can't wait. Two days after his birthday, Watson will be playing in the Brickyard Crossing in Indianapolis and then the Bank One Classic in Dallas the following week.

Here's hoping Watson will play in the Kaanapali Senior Classic Oct. 22-24 as well.

AS baseball's umps go bump into the night, aren't you glad that the sports pages will finally be filled with football stories - real football.

Not the sport that the rest of the world calls football.

The occasion is the start of the National Football League training camps. And while we might be the worst sports city in America, the fans here follow the NFL with a fervor unmatched anywhere.

With no NFL team to call its own, Hawaii fans have been favoring the Denver Broncos because of former Rainbows Jason Elam and Maa Tanuvasa. So they're wondering if there will be life after Elway for the Broncos?

The San Francisco 49ers have traditionally been Hawaii's Team, but will signing troubled Lawrence Phillips turn off some of their fans?

Tennessee now calls its team the Titans, and the Dawg Pound's back in Cleveland. It all starts soon and I can't wait.