LPGA Finally Opens Door to Hall of Fame

News item: LPGA players are expected to ease the stringent requirements for entry to the LPGA Hall of Fame.

Reaction: Brilliant, because there was never going to be anyone eligible again under the old rules.

So with 29 tournament victories, five majors and a Vare Trophy, 42-year-old Amy Alcott is finally going to get into the Hall of Fame without having to buy a ticket.

The new Hall entry requirements, which are being voted on by the LPGA membership and are based on a point system for wins (one point), majors (two points), Vare Trophy (one) and player-of-the-year awards (one), will make sure that Alcott and Beth Daniel have the 27-point total needed to qualify. If this system were the rule, Alcott figures she would have made it 12 years ago.

But Alcott insists she’s not bitter about it.

“I have no anger,” she said. “The game has been great to me. It’s just the way these stupid rules have been.”

The soon-to-be-extinct rules call for 30 victories and two majors (or 35 wins and one major, or 40 wins without a major.) That just wasn’t going to happen again, with prize money increases meaning careers aren’t as long.

Under the rules, Alcott has needed only one more victory since 1991, and that has made for some very awkward times.

“Almost every step I’ve taken on the golf course in the last eight years has been with people saying ‘One more!’ or ‘No one deserves it more!’ and now I won’t have to listen to that anymore,” Alcott said.

“My reaction right now is more of a relief than a thrill. It’s vindication from the standpoint of ‘Why would the LPGA make it so difficult on itself?’ Now the Hall of Fame should be difficult, but the women’s tour is not the 1950s anymore. This new generation of golfers of this era probably won’t play 20 years because there’s so much money. It’ll be easy for them to do well and leave the game.”

Alcott has 35 points and Daniel 39 under the new system. Annika Sorenstam has 24, Laura Davies 22, Hollis Stacy 22 and Juli Inkster 20.

Of course, Alcott would prefer to play her way in under the current rules, which she believes possible now that there’s not going to be a distraction about what the requirements are going to be.

And Alcott knows she’s going to wind up where she belongs--a probable March 22 induction at the World Golf Hall of Fame along with Daniel, Seve Ballesteros and Lloyd Mangrum.

“I think my career has been a Hall of Fame career,” Alcott said. “Now I can get down and play golf again.”

PGA AND TPA

One of the missions of the Tournament Players Assn., the players’ group that is pushing for reform of the PGA Tour, is to try to protect players who don’t make the cut.

Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour commissioner, said that some such system of compensation is a “desired goal.”

But Finchem pointed out that there are a number of “revenue streams” available to players besides tournament money. He listed endorsements, pro-am events, corporate outings and retirement funds.

He said the PGA Tour will put $16 million in deferred compensation for tour players in 1999.

WELL, HE WAS EXCITED

By the way, Finchem used the words “delighted” or “excited” 11 times in a five-minute briefing with the media on the state of the PGA Tour.

YOUTH MOVEMENT

He is 5 feet 5 and 13 years old, but Henry Liaw of Rowland Heights is one of the top junior golfers in Southern California. Last July, at age 12, he shot a 58 at Alhambra Municipal Golf Course.

Now Liaw, an eighth-grader at Alvarado Middle School, plans to try to qualify for next month’s Nissan Open and Buick Invitational.

“We’ll see how he can do,” said Jerry Wong, Liaw’s golf teacher.

Liaw, whose father, Mick, is an auto parts wholesaler, would be the youngest player in either field if he were to qualify.

Tom Pulchinski, Nissan Open tournament director, said he is reserving exemptions for foreign players who would play Riviera to get ready for the $5-million World Golf Championship match play event the next week at La Costa.

Colin Montgomerie, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Thomas Bjorn and Jose Maria Olazabal have expressed interest, Pulchinski said.

That means Liaw’s only chance to play would be to earn one of the four available spots through qualifying.

According to Wong, Liaw is something special.

“I know one thing,” Wong said. “He can do a lot of things you don’t see from normal 13-year-olds.”

TUNED OUT

There will be 211 rounds of golf played on the PGA Tour this year and 210 of them are going to be televised.

The one exception? That would be Wednesday’s first round of the Bob Hope, which could only mean that first-round leaders Tom Pernice, John Huston and Ben Bates had some bad timing.

TUNED IN

According to ESPN, ratings for the season-opening Mercedes Championships at Kapalua were 1.43, up 15% from last year’s 1.24 at La Costa. The Hawaii-staged event was shown in prime time for the first time.

WATSON UPDATE

Tom Watson turns 50 on Sept. 4, which means he’s eligible to play the Senior PGA Tour and start scooping up all the cash that’s currently being collected by Hale Irwin and Gil Morgan. But before then, Watson figures to be making some other money news.

Rumors that he is parting ways with his agent, Chuck Rubin of Assured Management Co., don’t appear to be true. Rubin has continued to make business calls on Watson’s behalf-- including setting the going price for an equipment deal (replacing Ram) at $1 million a year. That’s about double what a high-profile Senior PGA Tour player would receive.

THE MONEY DIET

For what it’s worth, Colin Montgomerie led the 1998 European PGA Tour money list with 993,077 and if he somehow manages to finish with the exact same amount this year, the number is still going to be different--1,406,600, as in euros.

The euro is the new currency of the European PGA (one euro is worth about $1.765) and has managed to be the one way for Montgomerie to shed pounds.

UH, PRACTICE?

Dan Jenkins, in the February issue of Golf Digest, has a few ideas on how to make golf more appealing to younger audiences. One of them is to play one-day, nine-hole tournaments.

Said Jenkins: “This will make particular sense to the group of young people who for years have been asking, ‘If the majors always start on the back nine on Sunday, what good are the other 63 holes?’ ”

SHORTS STORY

In 1955, touring pros voted down the idea of wearing shorts while playing. Arnold Palmer says he always hoped the results of that vote would be permanent .

Said Palmer: “I hope it was forever because you would see legs that are a lot less attractive than they were then.”

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

John Cook taped an appearance on “Wheel of Fortune” last week and named the Southern California PGA Foundation as beneficiary of his winnings. The show will air on Channel 7 next month.

Five Los Angeles area golf pros--Paul Runyan of Arroyo Seco, Eddie Merrins of Bel-Air, Bruce Hamilton of Spanish Hills, Derek Hardy of The Vintage and Mike Austin of Studio City Golf and Tennis Club--are among Golf magazine’s top 100 golf teachers in the U.S.

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This Week

PGA TOUR

Bob Hope Chrysler Classic

* Site: La Quinta.

* Schedule: Through Sunday.

* Purse: $3 million. (winner’s share: $540,000).

* TV: ESPN (today, 1:30-3:30 p.m.) and Channel 7 (Saturday-Sunday, noon-3 p.m.).

* Defending champion: Fred Couples.

* Last week: Jeff Sluman won the Sony Open in Honolulu, finishing with consecutive four-under 66s for a two-stroke victory over five players. The four-time tour winner had a nine-under 271 total.

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LPGA TOUR

Naples LPGA Memorial

* Site: Naples, Fla.

* Schedule: Through Sunday.

* Purse: $750,000 (winner’s share: $112,500).

* TV: The Golf Channel (today-Sunday, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 9-11:30 p.m.; Monday, 9-11:30 p.m.).

* Last year: Inaugural event.

* Last week: Kelly Robbins successfully defended her HealthSouth Inaugural title, closing with a course-record eight-under 64 for a one-stroke victory over Karrie Webb and Tina Barrett. Robbins had an 11-under 205 total.

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SENIOR PGA TOUR

Mastercard Championship

* Site: Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

* Schedule: Today-Sunday.

* Purse: $1.1 million (winner’s share, $185,000).

* TV: ESPN (Today, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.; Saturday, 2-4 p.m.; Sunday, 5-7 p.m.).

* Defending champion: Gil Morgan.