Hyundai Team Matches: It’s a close call, but Senior PGA Tour

matchup with Nicklaus is event’s most interesting matchup

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT COAST - The marquee matchup in Saturday’s pairings of the

Hyundai Team Matches at Pelican Hill Golf Club includes the Golden Bear

and a pair for comic relief.

Sounds like good theater for television and ABC Sports.

And, if the forecast of temperatures in the 70s holds up with slight

ocean breezes along the coast, local golf fans are expected to flood

ticket lines for walk-up sales.

As all three of the major tours convene at Pelican Hill for the

absolute final competition of the 2000 professional golf campaign, there

should be high drama in the three separate tournaments within a

tournament.

“Imagine those matchups on Saturday. Can you see Jack Nicklaus and Tom

Watson going up against Gary McCord and John Jacobs (from the Senior PGA

Tour)?” Terry Jastrow, the event’s producer, said Thursday.

In addition, Dana Quigley and Allen Doyle will face Bruce Fleisher and

David Graham in the other Senior Tour match, a two-man Ryder Cup format

(a.k.a. better ball).

The total purse of $1.2 million will be equally divided among the

different fields, with each winning team collecting $200,000.

Today’s pro-am begins at 9 a.m., followed by the Hyundai Team Matches

first round (or semifinals) on Saturday at 9 a.m. The winners play Sunday

at 9 a.m.

From the PGA Tour, defending champions Fred Couples and Mark

Calcavecchia will face Jean Van de Velde and Steve Flesch in the first

round, while Phil Mickelson and Rocco Mediate will play Tom Lehman and

Duffy Waldorf.

From the LPGA Tour, defending champions Juli Inkster and Dottie Pepper

will face Grace Park and Kelli Kuehne, while top headliner Annika

Sorenstam and Lori Kane will play Meg Mallon and Beth Daniel.

Nicklaus and Watson are the biggest draw against any team, but the

local lore created by McCord and Jacobs in the 1999 Toshiba Senior

Classic at Newport Beach Country Club will no doubt make them a gallery

favorite, as well.

No two pros joke around more than McCord and Jacobs, who are good

buddies and golfing partners, as well as neighbors in Scottsdale, Ariz.,

and in their prime (in their 50s!) as free spirits.

And, in ‘99, they helped make the Toshiba Classic famous with their

hilarious antics in a five-hole playoff, eventually won by McCord, the

wisecracking CBS golf commentator with the barbershop-quartet mustache.

For these guys to return as a tandem could shake the Richter scale of

gags.

On the first hole of the ’99 Toshiba playoff, Jacobs chipped in for

eagle from 90 feet. Believing he’d captured the tournament, Jacobs

pranced around the fairway in celebration, did an imitation of Chi Chi

Rodriguez’s sword dance and then tumbled backward onto the turf.

The gallery erupted.

McCord, meanwhile, who had never won a PGA or Senior PGA Tour event in

382 previous starts, was staring at an 18-foot eagle putt to stay alive

and extend the playoff.

“I’ve played with Gary enough to know that he doesn’t make that putt

for a $180 Nassau, so I was sure he wouldn’t make it for $180,000,”

Jacobs said.

McCord sank the python putt to continue the playoff (and eliminate

Doyle and Al Geiberger from the four-man playoff).

But after McCord made it, he motioned with a curled index finger for

Jacobs to come and fetch his ball from the cup with the ESPN cameras

rolling.

Jacobs retrieved his ball, all right, then chucked it into the crowd,

which loved every second of the frolics rarely seen in golf.

But Couples, who has won $2 million in the Skins Game in his career

and is a notoriously strong postseason player, and Mickelson could draw

even bigger galleries than anyone on the Senior Tour, including the

Golden Bear.

Mickelson is playing here for the first time, and, well, can’t wait to

face Couples and Calcavecchia.

“When we meet up,” Mickelson said, “they’re going to take a pretty

sound beating.”

Pepper and Inkster have dominated this event on the ladies’ side.