Maybe This Season Isn’t So Silly After All

Bashing off-season events is in vogue these days. Those taking the shots say events such as the Hyundai Team Matches at Pelican Hill this weekend are going to die out because huge regular-season purses make players lose interest in off-season events.

They say audiences will lose interest with lesser-known players filling the field.

They say sponsors won’t pay to keep the tournaments going.

Too bad nobody told players and organizers.

Rocco Mediate, playing in the Team Matches, was singled out in a recent Sports Illustrated article as the type of “bottom feeder” whose presence is a “black eye” to off-season events.

Mediate, who acknowledges that he is not in the same class as Tiger Woods, earned $1,320,278 and finished 34th on the 2000 PGA Tour money list.

Six tour players ranked in the top 35 on the money list are in the field at Pelican Hill. Jack Nicklaus is in the field along with four of the top 14 money winners from the Senior PGA Tour.

The LPGA Tour has sent eight of its top 30 players, including four of the top five.

“I don’t think these events are going to die,” Mediate said. “Maybe they will, I can’t see into the future, but I know they’ve got a place. Players enjoy coming to these.”

Terry Jastrow, president of Gaylord Sports Television, which produces the Team Matches, said off-season events have been around for years and will continue to be part of the game.

He cites examples of Old Tom Morris and Bobby Jones playing exhibition matches. A recent movie, “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” centers around an unofficial match between Jones and Walter Hagen.

“There’s always been an appetite for specialty events,” Jastrow said. “Certainly the stronger events will survive and the weaker events will fall. But new events will be created. The second season, or what’s called the silly season, will persist as it always has.”

Jastrow said TV ratings for unofficial events are lower than those for official events, but they are respectable. The competition is the same.

“None of us involved have suggested that these things are any more than they are,” he said. “We don’t take ourselves or these things seriously. They’re meant to be fun. We don’t say these things are heir apparent to major championships.”

The key to making an event successful, Jastrow said, is making it appealing with a good purse, a good format and a good location.

“If you have all those, then the players will come. If not, they won’t,” Jastrow said. “I can tell you one thing, we don’t create these things so that they’ll fold.”

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HYUNDAI TEAM MATCHES

Pelican Hills Golf Club, Newport Coast, Today and Sunday

SATURDAY

* 9:30 a.m. Annika Sorenstam and Lori Kane vs. Meg Mallon and Beth Daniel

* 9:42 Juli Inkster and Dottie Pepper vs. Grace Park and Kelli Kuehne

* 9:54 Dana Quigley and Allen Doyle vs. Bruce Fleisher and David Graham

* 10:06 Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson vs. Gary McCord and John Jacobs

* 10:18 Fred Couples and Mark Calcavecchia vs. Jean Van De Velde and Steve Flesch

* 10:30 Phil Mickelson and Rocco Mediate vs. Tom Lehman and Duffy Waldorf

SUNDAY

* 9:30-9:54 a.m.: consolation matches

* 10:06-10:30 a.m.: championship matches

PAST CHAMPIONS

1999: LPGA, Juli Inkster and Dottie Pepper

Senior PGA, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson

PGA, Fred Couples and Mark Calcavecchia

1998: Matches canceled because of conflict with Presidents Cup

*

1997 LPGA, Juli Inkster and Dottie Pepper

Senior PGA, Gil Morgan and Jay Sigel

PGA, Steve Elkington and Jeff Maggert

*

1996 LPGA, Juli Inkster and Dottie Pepper

Senior PGA, Jim Colbert and Bob Murphy

PGA, Tom Lehman and Duffy Waldorf

*

1995 LPGA, Tammie Green and Kelly Robbins

Senior PGA, Jim Colbert and Bob Murphy

PGA, Tom Lehman and Duffy Waldorf

*

1995 LPGA, Tammie Green and Kelly Robbins

Senior PGA, Ray Floyd and Dave Eichelberger

PGA, Jeff Maggert and Jim McGovern

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS

TOM WATSON and JACK NICKLAUS

* 1999 final: defeated Bruce Fleisher and David Graham, 1-up

* 1999 semifinal: defeated Allen Doyle and Dana Quigley, 5 and 4.

Nicklaus has an overall record of 4-2 in the matches. He was runner-up with Arnold Palmer in 1994 when they lost to Raymond Floyd and Dave Eichelberger in a 19-hole final. Nicklaus and Palmer lost to the same pair in the first round in 1995.

Watson is 2-0, with 1999 his only appearance.

*

FRED COUPLES and MARK CALCAVECCHIA

* 1999 final: defeated Steve Elkington and Jeff Maggert, 1-up.

* 1999 semifinal: defeated Chris Perry and Skip Kendall, 2 and 1.

Calcavecchia has an overall record of 4-6. He teamed with Jeff Sluman to go 0-3 in 1997, was 2-1 with Billy Mayfair in 1996 and lost in the first round with Mayfair in 1994 and ’95.

Couples (2-0) made his first appearance last year.

*

JULI INKSTER and DOTTIE PEPPER

* 1999 final: defeated Karrie Webb and Kelly Robbins, 4 and 3

* 1999 semifinal: defeated Kelli Kuehne and Laura Davies, 1 up

* 1997 final: defeated Nancy Lopez and Davies, 3 and 2

* 1996 final: defeated Tammie Green and Robbins, 1 up

* 1995 semifinal: lost to Davies and Mardi Lunn, 2 and 1

* 1994 final: lost to Robbins and Green, 2 and 1

Inkster and Pepper are 12-3 as a team in the matches and have not partnered with anyone else. They have reached the final in four of the five tournaments contested. Their only losses were in the 1994 final, the 1995 semifinal and a 2-down loss to Patti Sheehan and Nancy Lopez in the third round in ’96. Because the tournament was round robin in ‘96, they were able to come back and win the final.

PRIZE BREAKDOWN

Total purse of $1.2 million is evenly divided between the three tours:

* Winning teams: $100,000 and a car for each player

* Runner-up: $50,000 each player

* Third place: $30,000 each player

* Fourth place: $20,000 each player

HOW TO SEE IT

TELEVISION: Saturday 1-3 p.m., ABC; Sunday 1-3 p.m., ABC

TICKETS: $35 for adults; $20 for children 12 and under; $65 for a pass good both days

PARKING: Free public parking and shuttle to course at corner of Newport Coast Road and San Joaquin Hills Road