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Sports Watch
SOME thoughts and bon mots while waiting for Tiger Woods' 2001 debut in the Mercedes Championships starting Thursday at the Kapalua Plantation Course on Maui: Can Tiger
surpass himself?It's hard to imagine anyone, even Tiger, surpassing what he accomplished in 2000 -- the most magical year ever by any golfer.
Woods began his remarkable year by winning the Mercedes Championships with a memorable eagle-birdie-birdie finish to beat Ernie Els in a playoff.
So we all have an opportunity to see if 2001 is the Year of the Tiger again.
However, there's an interesting twist to Tiger's tale this time around.
As of this moment, he's trailing 2001 PGA Tour money leader Steve Stricker by a cool $1 million.
That's how much Stricker earned in winning the World Match Play Championship in Melbourne last weekend. It was an event that Woods, Phil Mickelson, David Duval and some of the other top players skipped.
It was Stricker's first victory since 1996 when he captured the Kemper and Western Opens. He came close in 1998, finishing runner-up by two strokes to Vijay Singh in the PGA Championship.
Isle golf fans remember Stricker. Not so much because he finished third in the Hawaiian Open that year, missing a playoff with winner Jim Furyk and Brad Faxon because of a stymied shot.
Stricker captured the gallery's attention because his wife, Nikki, was caddying for him that year. She gave up toting the bag after giving birth two years later.
He withdrew from this week's Tucson Open and hasn't yet committed to the Sony Open next week at Waialae, where he finished 14th last year.
Considering he's had a fine track record at Waialae, it would be surprising if Stricker, who's not eligible to play in the winners-only Mercedes Championships, will skip Sony.
With a $1 million lead, he could replace Woods as the new king of the West Coast swing, which consists of nine tournaments before the PGA Tour shifts to Florida.
The Sony Open's $722,000 top prize could even get Tiger's attention.
"Money helps," said defending Sony Open champion Paul Azinger. "It's got to be harder to take time off when we have this much money to play for."
DANDY DON: I knew you couldn't keep a good man down or out. Former University of Hawaii defensive coordinator Don Lindsey was hired to take over the same position at the University of Mississippi.
Ole Miss was embarrassing on defense the past season and if anyone can turn it around, it's Lindsey. To me, he was the best defensive coordinator in UH history.
His talent was sadly misused when head coach Fred vonAppen switched him to offensive coordinator in 1998, a move that led to disastrous results --an 0-12 season with vonAppen getting axed.
GETTING THE SCOOP: Writing about some of the original knights of Columbia Inn's Round Table, I made a reference that veteran newswoman Tsuneko "Scoops" Casey Kreger was no longer with us.
Wrong. Scoops is very much alive and kicking, according to her oldest son, Leo Casey.
"She got a great kick out of reading her 'obit.' But please run a correction so we don't receive condolences about her passing," he said.
Scoops, 77, broke her hip in a fall last February but is otherwise enjoying life to the fullest. She, too, lamented the closing of Columbia Inn, once her favorite watering hole.
