Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Friday, November 19, 1999

GOLF WATCH

Can Tiger top off great
year with Grand Slam
triumph?

TIGER, Tiger. Already the interest is mounting for the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at the Poipu Bay Resort on Kauai next Tuesday and Wednesday.

No need to tell you why. Tiger Woods is coming. The best golfer in the world, unquestionably.

Woods is the PGA of America's player of the year and it's only a matter of formality before his peers select him as the PGA Tour's player of the year as well at the end of the month.

Tiger won an astonishing $6.6 million in official tournaments this year - more than what Jack Nicklaus earned in his entire 37-year career.

Not surprisingly, 76 percent of the media participating in a PGA News poll picked Woods to win the Grand Slam title for the second year in a row, putting quite a finishing touch to his remarkable year.

British Open champion Paul Lawrie has the unfortunate task of facing Woods, who won the PGA Championship, in the first-round of the $1 million match-play event.

Masters winner Jose Maria Olazabal will face Davis Love III, who replaced the late U.S. Open champion Payne Stewart.

The opening-round winners contend for the $400,000 top prize, while the losers play for third place.

Love and Lawrie will be arriving tomorrow, Olazabal on Sunday.

Woods, who's playing with Mark O'Meara for the U.S. team in the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, won't arrive until Tuesday morning on Kauai, about four hours before the scheduled 10:30 a.m. start.

He will miss Monday's pro- am, much to the dismay of many golf fans who booked travel arrangements to the Garden Island to watch the pro-am.

ALOHA SECTION PGA HONORS

Greg Meyer will be honored as the Aloha Section PGA player of the year at its annual special awards luncheon Dec. 3 at the Hawaii Prince Hotel.

He will be one of 11 individuals who will receive awards from the Aloha Section PGA.

Princeville's Scott Head has been named the golf professional of the year, while the teacher-of-the-year award goes to Jerry King of Kapalua.

Michael Castillo of the Poipu Bay resort was cited for his contributions to junior golf, while Wailea's Eddie Lee was named assistant of the year.

Marty Keiter (Kapalua), Andrew Feldman (Oahu Country Club) and John Mauro (Waikoloa Village) were named merchandisers of the year for the resort, private and public courses, respectively.

Ed Kageyama (Turtle Bay), Mark Rolfing and Gail Chew also will be honored for their contributions to the 220-member local section.

SONY OPEN PAYOFF

Nick Price, Brent Geiberger, Paul Goydos and Brad Fabel - who made up the Sony Open in Hawaii charity team - earned $40,000 in bonus money for Hawaii charities with their performances this year.

They finished in fourth place among 35 teams.

The team finishing No. 1? Who else, but the one that Tiger Woods played for - the Motorola Western Open, which received a $100,000 bonus.

Tiger accumulated roughly 85 percent of his foursome's points based on dollars won.

SUCH A DEAL

The Hawaii State Golf Association will be sending new membership cards to 8,000 golfers. It'll entitle them to a 10 percent discount on golf equipment, fees and services at participating businesses.