Hyundai Team Matches: Weekend skins

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT COAST - Despite the negative press lately, don’t tell Tom

Watson this is golf’s silly season.

While the Hyundai Team Matches at Pelican Hill Golf Club and other

postseason events were part of a scathing Sports Illustrated article

recently, Watson, a winner of eight major championships, is thrilled to

play in the unofficial money events.

“I’ve heard Mark McCormick (founder of International Management Group)

and his operation can’t field some of the events, because players (on the

PGA Tour) are making too much money,” Watson said Friday after his round

in the Hyundai Pro-Am.

“But I certainly like to play in these events. They’re fun. Last week

I played with my son, and that’s really heartwarming. I certainly

couldn’t do that during the (Senior PGA Tour) season. And this week I get

to play with Jack Nicklaus. It’s beautiful playing with Jack.”

Watson played with his son, Michael, who turned 18 on Friday, at Paradise Island in the Bahamas for a father/son event. Watson also

finished second in the Wendy’s Three-Tour Challenge with Hale Irwin and

Tom Kite, which will air on television Dec. 23.

Part of the beauty of the Hyundai Matches is that it’s live (on ABC

today and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.), and Watson and Nicklaus are

defending champions for the Senior Tour.

The made-for-television event features four two-player teams from the

PGA Tour, Senior Tour and LPGA Tour in three separate better-ball

tournaments (a total of 24 pros) playing for $1.2 million.

“(Nicklaus) and I had two good days of golf last year,” said Watson,

whose team defeated Bruce Fleisher and David Graham, 1 up, in the finals

of the 1999 Diners Club Matches at Pelican Hill, after smoking Allen

Doyle and Dana Quigley, 5 and 4, in the Saturday semifinals as Nicklaus

shot an unofficial round of 62.

“Jack played great the first day with nine birdies and I made five

birdies on the final day.”

In his first full season, Watson finished 13th on the Senior PGA Tour

money list this year at $1,146,361, but did not play in the

rain-shortened 2000 Toshiba Senior Classic at Newport Beach Country Club.

Watson said Friday he plans to make his Toshiba Classic debut March

2-4.

Watson added that the Ocean North Course at Pelican Hill, where the

pros will convene this weekend, play like “mountain greens,” because of

the slopes.

“It’s a big golf course, and the greens have subtle contours. They’re

hard to read ... but it’s a beautiful golf course,” said Watson, an

aggressive, gambling golfer who always challenged courses on the PGA

Tour, in which he posted 34 tournament titles, 11th on the tour’s

all-time victory list.

On the PGA Tour, the Stanford graduate won two Masters titles, one

U.S. Open and five British Opens, while capturing the PGA Tour’s money

title five times, including four years in a row. Watson’s the last player

to win the same tournament three years in a row (1978-79-80 Byron Nelson

Classic).

A six-time PGA Player of the Year, Watson played on four U.S. Ryder

Cup teams and captained the 1993 squad to victory at The Belfry.

Today, Watson and Nicklaus will face Gary McCord and John Jacobs in

the opening round with a 10:06 a.m. tee time.

Former Pelican Hill Director of Golf Rob Ford played in the Thursday

pro-am with Southern California PGA pros and played again Friday in the

Hyundai Pro-Am in the group with Jean Van de Velde.

“I’m retired now,” Ford quipped.

The pro-am teams with David Graham (Senior Tour), Annika Sorenstam

(LPGA Tour) and Fleisher (Senior Tour) all shot 53 in the better-ball

competition Friday, with Graham’s Newport Beach-based team winning a

card-off.

Dick Engel, Keith Anderson and former Newport Beach Country Club men’s

club champion Joe Stafford, all of Newport Beach, teamed with Graham.

Sorenstam’s second-place group included John Marin, Brad Booth and

Keith Dennis, while Fleisher’s third-place team had Rand Danzo, Mike

Wuerth and Tony Gagliardi.

Hyundai finance employee David Hoeller invited two guests to play in

Friday morning’s corporate outing: Brad Summers from Chicago and Darshan

Karki from Minneapolis.

“On Monday in Chicago, we got 18 inches of snow,” Summers said during

a sunny day with cool ocean breezes. “Then Tuesday and Wednesday it was

negative-5 degrees, and Wednesday we got another six inches of snow. Then

I came out here to this place ... I think I can get into this.”

Added Karki: “It’s a 100-degree temperature swing for us.”

While McCord and Jacobs have played against each other several times,

today will be their first competitive appearance as a team.

“We’re always gambling against each other,” said Jacobs, good buddies

and neighbors in Scottsdale, Ariz., with McCord, who won the 1999 Toshiba

Classic in a five-hole, often hilarious playoff with Jacobs.

So who wins the most money when the two play on their home course? “I

kill him,” Jacobs said.

In Friday’s pro-am, Jacobs made nine birdies as his group shot 56. It

was the first time Jacobs played Pelican Hill.

“This golf club is magnificent,” Jacobs said. “If this club is 36

holes (which it is) and it was a private club, it would probably cost $1

million to join.”

McCord, like most of the PGA Tour and Senior Tour players, arrived in

town Friday. Many of the LPGA Tour players were here earlier in the week

to practice.

But McCord had a good excuse. On Thursday, he hosted the Santa Claus

Classic in Arizona, along with several other pros, and raised $250,000

for needy children.

In 1994, McCord and fellow Senior Tour pro Andrew McGee started the

charity tournament, which has raised over $1.4 million since its

inception.

Considering Jacobs made nine birdies and McCord made five birdies

Friday in the pro-am, they would appear to be ready for today’s Hyundai

Matches.

Asked if they had a chance to win, McCord said: “Sure. But I think

J.J. and I probably shot our wad a little early.”

In last year’s finals of the Diners Club Matches: In the PGA Tour,

Fred Couples and Mark Calcavecchia defeated Steve Elkington and Jeff

Maggert, 1 up, and split $200,000.

In the LPGA Tour, Juli Inkster and Dottie Pepper three-peated, beating

Karrie Webb and Kelly Robbins, 4 and 3. Inkster and Pepper are the only

team to win three straight titles in the event’s five-year history.

The Diners Club Matches, played at Pelican Hill for the first time

after four years in the desert at PGA West in La Quinta, was not held in

1998 because of a timing conflict with the Presidents Cup.