Columnist Victoria Sun: Golfers teed off for pride and charity

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, Nov. 17, 1999 | 10:49 a.m.

Victoria Sun's golf notes appear Wednesday. Reach her at victoria@vegas.com or 259-4078.

Raising money for charity is the driving force behind the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge.

For the nine players, there were some other intangibles at stake -- pride and bragging rights.

"It is relaxed, but we want to beat the men so we want to put a bit of pressure on ourselves," LPGA Rolex Player of the Year Karrie Webb said. "We just want to hold our own."

The made-for-TV Three Tour challenge, played on Tuesday at Reflection Bay Golf Club at the Lake Las Vegas Resort, had three players from the PGA, LPGA and Senior PGA Tours competing against each other in a team format based on a point system.

Each threesome consisted of one player from each tour and each hole was worth three points -- two for the player with the lowest score and one for the player with the second-lowest score. In the event of a tie, the points were evenly divided.

Senior PGA Tour players Hale Irwin, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson finished first with 63.5 points. They were followed by PGA Tour players Lee Janzen, Tom Lehman and Justin Leonard with 50 points and Webb, Juli Inkster and Dottie Pepper with 48.5 points.

"Us old guys, I think we just get better with age," Irwin said. "We're like a fine wine.

"A lot of it is experience that we've had playing in these kinds of things for so long, we have a feel for it. I think all of us look forward to these kinds of formats simply because it's something different. I think it would be more fun if we had more of these types of things with the three tours."

Irwin was a member of the senior team that won the event last season when it was played at the South Shore Golf Club at Lake Las Vegas Resort. But it was Senior PGA Tour rookie Tom Watson who carried the team.

Watson celebrated his 50th birthday on Sept. 4, making him eligible to compete with the senior set.

Despite the fact that he was playing with the flu, Watson relished the competition and led the field with 25 points.

"It feels pretty good to be out there and hitting the ball a little bit farther than the guys I'm playing against, rather than coming up 20 or 30 yards short against the guys I was playing with on the regular tour," Watson said. "It's fun playing against the best in each individual tour."

Team Watson split $300,000 while the PGA players shared $201,000 and the women divided $150,000.

The big winner was the Dave Thomas Foundation, which received a check for $1.2 million.

Thomas, the founder of Wendy's Restaurants, started the foundation in 1992 to raise public awareness about adoption.

"I think with the Dave Thomas Foundation it really makes it special for us to help the kids out," Irwin said.

It's also special for the players who compete against each other 11 months out of the year to be on the same team.

The gallery was considerably larger than the one during the season-ending PageNet Championship at the Desert Inn last weekend, where Webb clinched the LPGA player of the year award, the Vare Trophy (low stroke average) and the money title.

"It's great, we don't get to do it often," Inkster said. "Even though I don't know how they're playing or they don't know how I'm playing, it's good to compete as a team out there.

"Karrie's been beating us up all year so it's good to have her on our team once in a while."

The Wendy's Three Tour Challenge will be shown on ABC Dec. 18-19.

* CRUNCH TIME: Two local residents and two former members of the UNLV golf team are entered in the 169-player field for the final stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament today through Sunday at the Doral Resort & Spa in Florida.

Henderson resident Jeff Gallagher, Las Vegan Bob May and UNLV graduates Charley Hoffman (1999) and Warren Schutte (1991) will be playing for their tour cards. The top 35 players and ties earn their PGA Tour cards for 2000. The next 60 finishers earn exempt status on the Nike Tour.

* THIS COURSE IS TOPS: A Nevada golf course garnered a spot on Golf Digest's top 10 list of best new courses of 1999. The Reflection Bay Golf Club in Henderson ranked sixth on the list for Best New Upscale Public course. The maximum greens fee at the par-72 7,261 yard course designed by Jack Nicklaus is $200.