In Opposing Martin, Tour Veered From Path of Logic

Now that the first round in the Casey Martin-PGA Tour-golf cart lawsuit is complete, there really is only one question left over.

Why did it even happen?

The tour should never have allowed itself to be dragged into such a public relations disaster.

You can’t act as if the rules of the game are sacrosanct when anybody can see that carts are used during portions of PGA Tour qualifying school, on the Senior PGA Tour and even in some PGA Tour events when the distance between green and the next tee is great.

You don’t want to be seen as stepping on the necks of the disabled.

You don’t want anything like what happened, basically.

In time, the tour will recover from this, but Martin might not. He will try to get back to business at a Nike Tour event next month in Austin, Texas, where he will ride a cart. What effect this ordeal has had on him isn’t known.

The tour is going to appeal, which means there’s another chance to win--but also an opportunity to flunk basic public relations.

MORE MARTIN

Can you picture Martin playing the Nissan Open paired with Tiger Woods?

It might be a great idea, except it doesn’t look as though it’s going to happen. Martin would need a sponsor’s exemption and Woods would need to commit, which he is expected to do.

Tom Pulchinski of the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce said the Nissan Open doesn’t solicit players to ask for sponsor’s exemptions. He said he isn’t going to start making exceptions.

TPC TO VALENCIA

There is an 18-hole Tournament Players Club coming to Valencia, so is there a PGA Tour or senior tour event on its way?

Maybe. The tour doesn’t build TPC courses without scheduling events there, and the Valencia site, just west of Interstate 5 and north of McBean Parkway, is scheduled to be completed in 2000.

Mark O’Meara is the player consultant on the project, which is a partnership between the PGA Tour and Newhall Land and Farming Co.

Construction for the TPC of Valencia is scheduled to begin late next year in the proposed Westridge Golf Course Community. Public hearings before the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission should start in mid-March.

PHENOM UPDATE

Just to prove you can’t have enough youthful stars around--either that or that it’s good to be young--meet Se Ri Pak.

She’s 20, she’s from South Korea, she shot the lowest score at LPGA qualifying school (with Kristie Kerr) and she has swing coach David Leadbetter in her corner.

She can’t miss, according to Leadbetter, who ought to know something about the subject, since he helped Nick Faldo win two British Open titles and one Masters.

Pak, who won 30 amateur events and six pro tournaments before she was 20, is supposed to be bigger than the Dodgers’ Chan Ho Park in Korea--and she can’t even throw a fastball.

Pak has a 10-year contract with Samsung, a Korean electronics company, but she plays Callaway clubs and Leadbetter is a Callaway staff professional.

Jeff Cable, who used to caddie for Val Skinner, is on Pak’s bag this week at the Los Angeles Women’s Championship. Cable said he’s impressed by Pak’s maturity and her work ethic.

“She’s very strong; she can launch it,” he said.

In her only LPGA event this year, Pak tied for 13th at the HealthSouth. She thinks she can do better than that.

“I want to be top-10 ranking this year,” Pak said. “I do my best this year. I need time.”

And a victory?

“I want. I try. Maybe this year.”

Pak, the second-oldest of three daughters of a construction executive from Taejung, lives in Orlando, Fla., and likes it because it’s quiet.

Her impact on the LPGA might turn out to be slightly different.

NOSTALGIA TOUR UPDATE

There’s still fallout from the comments by Richard Ferris, chairman of the PGA Tour Policy Board, that the Senior PGA Tour “is a nostalgia tour.”

Ferris, the former chief executive officer at United Air Lines, made his comments during testimony in Martin’s lawsuit and didn’t win many new friends on the senior tour.

“If he knew the difference between competition and nostalgia, he’d still be the chairman of UA,” Lee Trevino said. “Maybe he thought United was nostalgia. If I was Tim Finchem, I’d ask for his resignation.”

Finchem, the PGA Tour commissioner, said Ferris’ statements were taken out of context.

SCOTT FREE

Yes, Scott Simpson had some good timing when he won the Buick Invitational last week.

Simpson was playing on a one-time-only exemption this year--top 50 in career money. Now, the 42-year-old from San Diego has a two-year exemption.

By the way, Simpson isn’t the only one using the top-50 exemption this year. Fuzzy Zoeller and John Huston are doing the same thing. Bruce Lietzke and Chip Beck are playing this year with a one-time exemption for top 25 in career money.

. . . IN THE WALLET

After winning nine times on the senior tour last year, Hale Irwin has a whole new perspective on Gil Morgan, who already has two victories this year.

“Gil Morgan has become a real pain,” Irwin said.

A HIGH-FIVE

Can anybody say five-peat? No one has ever won a tournament five consecutive times, but Laura Davies takes a swing at it next week at the Standard Register Ping in Phoenix.

There’s a lot of money at stake. If Davies wins, she will receive a $300,000 bonus plus the $127,500 first-place money.

And the Arizona Republic will kick in $1 million to charities fighting domestic violence and child abuse.

Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen are the only other players who have won the same event four consecutive times, but Davis is ready.

“The pressure of winning the fifth is something I have thought about ever since I won the fourth,” she said.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Oakmont Country Club, site of the Los Angeles Women’s Championship, just celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Officially opened for play in 1924, the grading for the first nine holes was completed using 10 teams of mules. The original 100 bonds sold to start the club cost $2,000 each.

MacDonald Smith, a four-time winner of the Los Angeles Open, was the head pro in 1935 when the first Glendale Open was held. Smith won in a field that also included Hagen, Sarazen, Horton Smith and Harry Cooper.

Ben Hogan won the 1948 Glendale Open with a then-record 64 on the last day. But that’s not the best Hogan story at Oakmont--there is actually a picture of Hogan clowning around--his cap twisted sideways--in club manager Steve Hockett’s office.

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

Money news: The British Open, which has doubled its purse since 1991, will award $490,000 to this year’s winner at Royal Birkdale. . . . UCLA is hosting a four-ball stroke play event June 7-9 at Primm Valley Golf Club in Stateline, Nev. The 36-hole, two-man better ball tournament benefits the UCLA men’s golf program. Details: (310) 206-6588. . . . Tom Kite has worn glasses since he was 12, but you may have noticed he isn’t wearing them anymore. Kite had surgery recently and his vision improved from 20/500 to 20/15.