Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Friday, October 15, 1999

GOLF WATCH

Kaanapali Classic gets
its best field

THE EMC Kaanapali Classic next week will feature perhaps the best field in the 12-year history of the Senior PGA Tour event on Maui.

That's saying something.

Surprisingly, though, the golfer to watch in the 54-hole tournament isn't Hale Irwin, the Senior Tour's money winner the last two years.

Or Gary Player, the only one to win golf's four majors other than Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus.

Or Raymond Floyd, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Dave Stockton, Dave Eichelberger, Bob Charles, George Archer or even defending champion Jay Sigel.

Rather, it's Bruce Fleisher, who's tearing up the Senior Tour in his rookie season with six victories.

Fleisher, who won only once in more than 400 PGA Tour events, is even threatening to end Irwin's back-to-back reign as the Senior Tour's money champion.

Fleisher has already earned $2,114,630 this year, putting him $192,808 ahead of Irwin, who's in second place.

And Fleisher will add to that lead in this week's Raley Gold Rush Classic in Sacramento because Irwin is taking the week off before coming to Kaanapali.

Fleisher can become the first Senior Tour rookie to win the money title since Lee Trevino in 1990.

Interestingly, it'll be Floyd's first appearance at Kaanapali since he joined the Senior Tour in 1992.

It's probably because Floyd isn't playing in next January's Senior Skins Game at Mauna Lani, an event he won five straight years before Irwin ended his streak last January.

Irwin isn't playing in the Senior Skins Game either, even though he's the defending champion.

He'll be invited back in 2001, according to Mark Rolfing, events chairman of the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Playing in the final Senior Skins Game at Mauna Lani after 11 years will be Player, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Senior Tour newcomer Tom Watson.

"The idea was to have the four who were the original four players in the very first Skins Game in 1983," Rolfing said.

Wailea's Gold Course will be the host site for the Senior Skins Game in 2001 and 2002.

"After that, we don't know," Rolfing said. "I'd like to see Wailea as the permanent home."

Rick Castillo, Wailea's head professional, is excited about the event.

"We've been looking for something like this for a long time. When we heard that Mauna Lani didn't want it, we got in line quickly," Castillo said.

"What a great event. To have four legends teeing it up for nine holes Saturday and nine holes Sunday leading up to the Super Bowl can't be beat. It puts us on the map."

Wailea last hosted a professional golf event in 1992, the final year of three years as host of the LPGA Tour's Women's Kemper Open."

STRANGE CHOICE

It's said that Curtis Strange will be the next American team captain for the Ryder Cup in Belfrey, England, in 2001.

No offense, but he's not exactly the personality-plus guy that the Americans need in what will be a no-holds war the next time they meet the Europeans.

He's already a guy people like to boo. Imagine how he'll be treated by the Brits.

Brit Peter Alliss, an ABC cohort with Strange, already got in the first digs.

"He's a real red-neck at times; very stubborn and vitriolic when the mood takes him," Alliss told Golf Week.