Golf, Woods, Sorenstam, Hogan, Palmer top golf
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By RON SIRAK / AP Golf Writer
The fresh breeze that blew across golf in 1997 whispered the
names of Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam, yet lingering in the
wind was the memory of Ben Hogan and the love for Arnold Palmer
rekindled by his cancer scare.
It was a year of high drama and deep sadness, a year of anxiety
and anticipation and, for the Americans, heartbreak at the Ryder
Cup.
But if there was one word to sum up golf this year it would
be growth.
Woods, with $2.07 million, won the most money ever on the PGA
Tour. Sorenstam's $1.2 million set the money record for the LPGA.
And Hale Irwin won more money on the Senior Tour -- $2.3 million
-- than any golfer had ever won on any tour.
As golf swings into 1998, more players will compete for more
money and get more TV exposure than ever before.
And, in part because of the sensational first full year on
the PGA Tour by Woods, more money will be spent on golf by advertisers,
equipment companies, clothing manufacturers and players than ever
before.
It is a far cry from the game played 50 years ago by Hogan,
who died July 25 at age 84. And 35 years ago, only Palmer could
create the type of enthusiasm that Woods generated this year.
So it was with great concern that golf fans learned in January
that Palmer had prostate cancer and it was with great relief and
affection they greeted his return at the Bay Hill Invitational
just two months after surgery.
Although many strong threads made up the storyline in golf
in 1997, one totally determined the texture of the fabric.
The 21-year-old Woods not only set records with an amazing
victory in the Masters, he pushed golf off the sports pages and
onto the front pages by becoming the first nonwhite winner at
an Augusta National course that virtually symbolizes the whiteness
of the game.
Woods' ethnic background -- his father is black and his mother
is Thai -- became a bigger issue a week after the Masters when
a tape surfaced of Fuzzy Zoeller making racially insensitive remarks
about Woods on the day of his historic victory.
Capitalizing on Tigermania, the PGA Tour negotiated a TV deal
doubling prize money by 2002, commissioner Tim Finchem announced
a World Golf Championships series beginning in 1999 and a coalition
of major golf organizations created The First Tee program designed
to get more minority children involved in golf.
Woods and Sorenstam were dramatic representatives of the new
breed in golf. Woods won four tournaments in his first full year
on tour and Sorenstam won six LPGA events and was in the top-three
14 times in 22 events.
But they were not the only members of the twentysomething crowd
making news in golf.
Ernie Els, 27, won the U.S. Open and 25-year-old Justin Leonard
took the British Open. Davis Love III, the old man at 33, won
an emotional PGA Championship when he walked onto the final green
at Winged Foot beneath a glorious rainbow, brushing back tears
as he remembered his late father, who started him in the game.
David Duval, 26, was second to Woods on the money list with
$1.8 million and ended the year with three consecutive victories.
At the Mercedes Championships in January he will try to become
the first person to win four consecutive starts on the PGA Tour
since Hogan in 1953.
Jim Furyk, 27, won $1.6 million, and Phil Mickelson, 27, won
$1.2 million.
Woods, Love, Leonard, Furyk and Mickelson were among captain
Tom Kite's 12-man U.S. Ryder Cup team that was the clear favorite
at Valderrama in Spain but lost to Seve Ballesteros' European
squad. It was the fifth time in the last seven tries the U.S.
team had failed to take the cup.
Sorenstam had worthy rivals in Karrie Webb, 22, who won three
tournaments and $987,606 in 1997, and Kelly Robbins, 28, who won
$910,907.
None of the Big Three, however, won a major championship in
1997.
Betsy King won the Dinah Shore, Chris Johnson took the LPGA
Championship, Alison Nicholas edged sentimental favorite Nancy
Lopez at the U.S. Open and Colleen Walker won the Du Maurier Classic.
Georgia Tech sophomore Matt Kuchar, 19, won the U.S. Amateur
2 and 1 over Joel Kribel. And Silvia Cavalleri became the first
Italian native to win the U.S. Women's Amateur, defeating Robin
Burke 5 and 4.
Charles Warren of Clemson came from six shots off the pace
to win the NCAA Division I men's golf championship in a playoff
with Brad Elder. Pepperdine won the team championship.
Heather Bowie of Texas won the NCAA Division I women's golf
championship and the team title went to Arizona State for the
fourth time in five years.
The United States reclaimed the Walker Cup when the team of
U.S. amateurs easily defeated the squad from Britain-Ireland.
Besides Hogan, other deaths in 1997 included former PGA Championship
winner and TV commentator Dave Marr; Ryder Cup player, captain
and PGA Championship winner Jay Hebert; the great British amateur
of the 1920s, Joyce Wethered; longtime caddie Jeff "Squeeky"
Medlen; and journalist Dick Taylor.
Palmer was one of four regulars on the Senior PGA Tour diagnosed
with cancer in 1997. The others were Jim Colbert, Larry Gilbert
and Bruce Devlin.
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