Wednesday, January 5, 2000
Woods, Duval ready
to go at it again
They top the field of 1999
Callaway will have a ball at Kapalua
PGA Tour champions for
the Mercedes ChampionshipsBy Bill Kwon
Star-BulletinHawaii has the honors again as the PGA Tour tees off its first season of the new millennium tomorrow with the Mercedes Championships at Kapalua, Maui.
And talk about Maui Wowie.
Thirty 1999 tournament winners are entered. There would have been more, if a guy named Tiger Woods hadn't gone out and won eight of the PGA-sanctioned events himself.
It might have been the Year of the Rabbit in 1999, but it should have been the Year of the Tiger.
Woods set a tour single-season money record of $6.2 million, claimed the player of the year honors and also won the Vardon Trophy with a record stroke average of 68.43.
Will 2000 again be Tiger's year? Or Tiger's Tour?
Golf fans will get an immediate inkling by Sunday when the 72-hole tournament of champions ends as Woods will be trying to win his fifth straight PGA event.He had won four straight tournaments at the end of last year, the first to do so since Ben Hogan in 1953.
Nothing stopped Tiger in 1999 except the end of the season. But he's playing in a field with a bunch of guys who knew how to win last year.
Perhaps Tiger's biggest challenge will come from defending champion David Duval, who blew away the field that included Woods in last year's inaugural Mercedes Championships.
Duval established a tournament record of 26 under par with a score of 266 to win by a whopping nine strokes. The 7,263-yard Plantation Course plays to a par-73.
Well, Duval's back, not only because of his Mercedes triumph but with three additional tournament victories.
The tour's only other multiple winners in 1999 - Notah Begay, Carlos Franco, David Toms and Duffy Waldorf - are also here.
They'll be joined by reigning British Open champion Paul Lawrie, and previous majors winners Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Hal Sutton, Steve Elkington and Jeff Sluman, who also won the inaugural Sony Open last year.
Rounding out the 30-man field are Jeff Maggert, Jim Furyk, Jesper Parnevik, Stuart Appleby, Brad Faxon, Loren Roberts, Tim Herron, Mike Weir, Glen Day, Brent Geiberger, Gabriel Hjertstedt, Rocco Mediate, Ted Tryba, J.L. Lewis, Tom Pernice, Olin Browne and Rich Beem.
Of the 1999 winners eligible for the event, only Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal is missing. He wanted to take a longer break between seasons.
Three of the tour's top 10 money winners - Davis Love III, Chris Perry and Justin Leonard - did not win an official tournament last year to be eligible for the event.
In the prize money breakdown, the winner collects $822,000 and its scaled down from there to the player finishing 30th getting $45,000.
Mercedes Championships
Who: 30 winners of 1999 PGA Tour events.
Callaway will have
Associated Press
a ball at KapaluaKAPALUA, Maui -- There's no place like the Mercedes Championship to have a ball.
A golf ball, that is.
Last year, Taylor Made's new golf ball made its debut at Kapalua. This time, the spotlight is on Callaway's new ball, which has been one of the best kept secrets in the industry. It will not be unveiled until the PGA Merchandise Show next month, although Rocco Mediate and Brian Henninger are among those using the Callaway ball this week.
Mediate had a plain white box of the balls -- and a black magic marker -- when he went out for a practice round yesterday. The pen was to scratch out the logo, at the request of the company.
Vijay Singh also has new equipment, having ended his relationship with Wilson. The former PGA champion now has an endorsement to play Cleveland irons.
And David Duval is no longer a poster boy for Tommy Hilfiger. Duval, the defending champion, has signed a new apparel deal with Mossimo.
"They obviously have a good feel for where fashion is headed," Duval said.
