Alcott No Longer Worries About One More Thing

The newest inductee into the LPGA Hall of Fame is no longer worried about picking up her newspaper in the morning.

“I don’t have to walk outside my door in my bathrobe to get the newspaper and some guy is peeking at me and saying, ‘One more, Amy, you can do it!’ ” Amy Alcott said.

“At Phoenix, there were people still yelling at me, ‘One more time, Amy.’ I guess they hadn’t heard the news yet. ‘One more time! One more time!’ I’m sure I’ll hear that for years.”

Possibly, but there is no more one more in Alcott’s golf itinerary, not since she was made a member of the LPGA Hall of Fame last month when the entry requirements were changed, basically because nobody else was ever going to be eligible until the end of time.

Under the old rules, you needed 30 victories, including two majors, and Alcott had been stuck on 29 since 1991. A new points system was substituted and Alcott made it easily, as did Beth Daniel, who will be inducted next year.

It took 13 years for the LPGA to study the Hall of Fame entry criteria, about a month for the players to vote and about 10 seconds for Alcott to breathe a sigh of relief.

At 43, after 29 victories and five major titles, Alcott isn’t angry about the long wait but neither does she feel vindication . . . although she knows it has been a very long time coming and could have happened a long time ago.

“I’ve been told that if the new rules had been in effect, I would have been eligible 12 years ago,” Alcott said.

“I’m just glad the golf gods were looking after me.”

Alcott hopes they continue. She thinks she can still win on the LPGA Tour, even though she didn’t finish better than seventh in 1998 and won only $59,420 in a career-low 16 tournaments. This year, Alcott has played five times and her best finish is a tie for 29th.

But the three-time Nabisco Dinah Shore champion is back in the desert again, hoping for the best as one of seven Hall of Fame players in the field. The others are JoAnne Carner, Patty Sheehan, Pat Bradley, Betsy King, Nancy Lopez and Daniel.

Alcott was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame last Monday at St. Augustine, Fla. Among others, she thanked her parents, her brother and sister, her fellow pros, her coach, Walter Keller, her sponsor at Riviera, Bob William, and her hero, Babe Didrikson Zaharias.

“I read her life story six times,” Alcott said. “I wanted to thank her for giving us a beginning so we could have a future.”

Alcott said the only thing she is concerned about now is playing . . . not about having to win for a 30th time.

There’s something else she is not concerned about.

“I’m not thinking about retiring or anything,” Alcott said. “As long as I know I can win, I’ll be out here playing.”

AND TOSSED THE KEY

Alcott said that golf has changed quite a bit over the years.

“For instance,” she noted, “If Arnold Palmer stood on the 18th green in the 1950s for the awards ceremony after winning a tournament and said, ‘I want to thank my sports psychologist,’ they would have locked him up.”

OF COURSE

Three-time LPGA tournament winner Karrie Webb was asked why she switched to a cross-handed putting style.

“Because they go in,” she said.

NUMBERS AND CENTS

Ty Votaw, the LPGA’s new commissioner, said the tour is a much easier sell in the corporate marketplace these days and that the LPGA tournament prize money is about on par with the PGA Tour.

The LPGA’s prize money in 1999 is $36.2 million, whereas the PGA Tour is playing for $125 million. Prize money is $1 million at the Nabisco Dinah Shore, the first major on the LPGA schedule. Prize money at this week’s PGA Tour event, the Players Championship is $5 million.

Votaw said the disparity is understandable because the PGA Tour is 12 years older than the LPGA.

“You ask me if we’re going to be playing for $125 million in 12 years and I say, come talk to me in 12 years,” Votaw said.

It’s an argument with holes, since $125 million in 12 years won’t have the same value as it does now, assuming the LPGA can reach that level anyway.

Votaw, former vice president for business affairs in the LPGA, said the primary goal of the tour is to “make sure we feel good about ourselves.”

The new commissioner said he is about a 20-handicap player and proved it in the pro-am. He said he thought he played all right, though.

“We’ll know more in about 30 days after the insurance claims come in,” he said.

MAJOR MAJOR

It’s a debate that won’t go away. Last month, the question was whether the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship was a major. No. This week, it’s whether the Players Championship is a major. No.

But Ernie Els has to agree that the Players is a vital event.

“I’ll give you 900,000 reasons why this is an important tournament,” he said.

It should be noted that the winner gets $900,000 of the $5-million purse. Now that’s major.

BYE-BYE, BOBBY

Is this any way to treat an icon? The dedication of a historical marker honoring Bobby Jones in Augusta, Ga., was scrapped after Augusta State University officials were upset about being left out of the ceremony on school property.

The dedication was scheduled for April 7 at Forest Hills Golf Club, which the school owns. Jones won a regional event there in 1930, four years before the legendarygolfer began the Masters tournament.

HINT: YOU ALWAYS WIN

For what it’s worth, Mark O’Meara viewed the videotape of his Masters victory once last year--the week after the tournament-- and hasn’t watched it since.

WHO’S NEXT

In 1997, Tiger Woods and O’Meara played a friendly little game at Isleworth resort near Orlando, Fla., the week before the Masters. Woods shot a 59 and went on to win the Masters.

In 1998, Woods and O’Meara got together again at Isleworth the week before the Masters. O’Meara won this time . . . and went on to win the Masters.

So what’s happening next week? Who’s the new Masters champion-to-be this time?

Said O’Meara, “I think there’s a lot of guys who would like to get in our game.”

ARNIE ON TIGER

See Tiger frown. See Tiger throw his putter at his bag after missing a putt. See Tiger tomahawk the ground after a bad drive.

Well, Palmer has seen enough. Palmer said Woods needs to lighten up a little.

“I think that frown all the time, and that slamming the club down, doesn’t do anything for his game and the game,” Palmer said. “He’s got the world in his hands. All he has to do is enjoy it and laugh.”

Of course, Woods says he can’t help it if he’s a little on the intense side. And David Duval, anointed by the media as Woods’ primary antagonist for the next decade or so, says Woods is being held up to inspection like no other.

“That’s part of transcending the game, of being an icon,” Duval said. “He’s always going to be under a lot of scrutiny.”

O’Meara chalked up any mini-Tiger tantrums to immaturity.

“Tiger understands that he has made some mistakes,” O’Meara said. “I mean, I think he knows when he slams his driver in the ground that he’s on national TV. He doesn’t know that right away but I think he realizes he made a mistake.”

MORE ARNIE ON TIGER

Palmer said he had a conversation with Woods about his responsibilities to golf right after Woods turned pro. But Palmer doesn’t think Woods heard much.

“He didn’t have his hearing aid on,” Palmer said.

IT’S UNDERSTANDABLE

Woods told reporters at the Players Championship that his dealings with the media can be burdensome.

“I mean, I like all of you,” he said, “but I’d rather be eating.”