Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2005 | 9:11 a.m.
Adam Candee covers golf for the Sun. Reach him at (702) 259-4085 or by e-mail at [email protected].
With the PGA tour set to begin its season at the Mercedes Championships in Maui, fanciful thoughts of the islands are enough to make a rain-soaked mind wander.
Random thoughts about the upcoming season, presented in no particular order of importance ...
Was it really a year ago that Sports Illustrated anointed former UNLV standout Chad Campbell as the Next Big Thing? And after a year that didn't match that hype -- aside from Campbell's Ryder Cup appearance -- we've already moved on to another one-time Rebel, Adam Scott, as the Next Next Big Thing.
Believe it with Scott, whose game is more electric than Campbell's. Nothing against Chad, who is likely a lock for the top 40 on the money list for a decade to come, but Scott could be poised for a breakout this year.
If people ever ask what's wrong with me in a year when I earn more than $5.3 million and do what I do better than all but three people in the world -- AND I marry a Swedish model and disappear from the world with her on a yacht for a month -- well, you can just tell people that's all right with me.
One more time, and for the third week in a row because I feel good about it (and because GolfWorld came out and backed me up this week): Ernie Els, golden boy of 2005. (And if I'm wrong, at least I've got that yacht to fall back on.)
It would be nice to see local pro Chris Riley get a win this year, if only for people to see a good person's name associated with something other than last season's Ryder Cup fiasco. And why not a prediction -- it'll happen.
So LPGA self-promoted vixen Natalie Gulbis is reportedly getting cozy with Pittsburgh Steelers rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger these days, huh? Maybe Big Ben's quick-winning ways will rub off on the belle of Lake Las Vegas, who fell to 42nd on the money list and owns just two top-10 showings in the past two years.
On the brighter side, Gulbis dropped her scoring average for the second consecutive year and a good early push could net her a Solheim Cup spot, as she now sits 15th in points. If she can lose as many strokes this year as she did clothing last year (in her pin-up calendar and FHM magazine photo spread), then Gulbis can put to rest the Anna Kournikova comparisons that she so despises.
Staying with the ladies, there are some really interesting storylines away from bikinis as well. No amount of attention could do justice to Annika Sorenstam's dominance, which won't stop in 2005. Paula Creamer, the American teen sensation you haven't heard of, won Q-school and it's easy to believe she'll reach her goal of making the Solheim Cup squad as an 18-year-old.
And the success of Creamer could be just the impetus that Michelle Wie needs to accelerate her much-anticipated process of applying for an exemption to the tour's 18-and-over age policy that would bring Wie out full-time beginning in 2006 as a 16-year-old. She'll own the game whenever she goes pro, but the endorsement gravy train and the nation's attention are pulling away from the station a little bit.
And I'll still never come within 50 yards of outdriving her.
While everyone is focusing on the Big Four (Woods, Vijay Singh, Els, Phil Mickelson), Retief Goosen should win another major this year. And, on the same note, the most popular pick I've seen so far is Mickelson to win the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, where he battled the late Payne Stewart five years ago.
I don't buy it because I'm not in the camp that feels Mickelson completely shed his albatross at Augusta, not with the way he finished at the rest of the majors. It's a little like the Red Sox -- show me that it wasn't a fluke, a one-time aligning of the stars before I really believe in it.
The most interesting story of the preseason, by leaps and bounds, is Tom Kite's decision to swing with the big boys one more time. Kite, 56, is using a one-time exemption as a lifetime top-50 career earnings leader to play on the PGA tour this year.
And it's not so much about how he does as the oldest exempt player in tour history. I just admire the chutzpah of the guy for getting out there at an age when even his Champions tour pals are starting to lose a step among each other.
Closing with an anecdote of no professional relation ... my cousin recently played the Plantation Course at Kapalua, where the pros play starting tomorrow, and offers this story that will make you want to experience it even more than you probably already did.
He booked an afternoon tee time at the bargain rate of $90, wondering why he could play this stunning layout for about one-third the normal price. Bringing along his newlywed bride, he set out for the course and when he got out of the car, the answer on the rate, my friend, was blowing in the wind.
Hawaiian trade winds kick up to impressive levels as the day wears on, making a round at Kapalua into an exercise in ball control. But that's not why you'll want your shot at it.
Staring down from the 18th tee at the longest hole in any PGA tour event -- a par-5, 663-yard mammoth of a signature hole -- he hit his 3-wood off the tee into the downhill, downwind fairway area. But upon heading down toward where he thought the shot went, he could not find the ball anywhere.
That is, until his playing partner called to him from what seemed like the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He'd hit the ball -- no kidding -- 390 yards. Yet another reason to go to Hawaii and never come back.
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