Defending champion Tiger Woods is still coming. So are U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, Open runner-up Payne Stewart, British Open winner Justin Leonard and Masters champ Mark O’Meara. It could be worse; a lot worse.
The Motorola Western Open, though, continued to bleed talent Monday when two more marquee players withdrew from this week’s field–three-time Western champion Tom Watson, one of greatest and most loyal names in the tournament’s 95-year history, and Curtis Strange.
Watson’s decision is a big blow. He has played in 25 Western Opens, including 24 of the last 26, and won Western titles in 1977 and 1984. Earlier this week, Watson said, “I wouldn’t miss Chicago.”
Now, though, Watson has added his name to a growing list of players who waited until this week to inform Western Golf Association officials they were pulling out: Ernie Els (back problems), Davis Love III (back), David Duval (busy schedule) and European PGA stars Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke, whose agent Andrew Chandler said Sunday the pair would bypass the Western because they were “tired” from playing a heavy schedule.
Watson called Western Open tournament director Greg McLaughlin to say he was withdrawing because of a shoulder injury. Strange, the two-time U.S. Open champion, gave no reason.
Having Woods’ crowd-drawing potential–and seven of the top 10 money winners–made it easier for McLaughlin to lose Watson.
“I didn’t get into details with him about the shoulder,” McLaughlin said, “but my feeling about Watson is that if he could be here he would here.”
For the first time, though, McLaughlin wondered out loud whether the tournament’s spot on this year’s PGA calendar–immediately after the U.S. Open–has had a negative impact on the field. “It’s probably having more of an effect than I originally realized,” he admitted.
The Western traditionally is played over the 4th of July weekend. It returns to those dates next year and the PGA Tour is committed to keeping it there at least through 2002. The unattractive ’98 dates go back to an agreement reached in 1995, when the PGA Tour was making up its 1997 calendar. The ’97 Western was slated to be played right after the British Open. McLaughlin polled 75 players, a large majority indicated they would skip the Western if that date held, and so the WGA appealed to the Tour. A compromise was reached: The Greater Hartford Open agreed to accept the spot after the ’97 British Open in return for getting the 4th of July week in ’98.
Quad City draws Martin: Tying for 23rd in the U.S. Open clearly convinced Casey Martin he was ready for more: He has committed to the July 6-12 Quad City Classic in Coal Valley, Ill. Martin, who has a rare circulatory disorder in his right leg and sued for the right to use a cart, also has accepted a sponsor’s exemption to the Greater Hartford Open.
They’re in: Nathan Brown of North Barrington shot a 67 to become one of four players to survive Monday’s 147-player Western Open general qualifying at Village Links of Glen Ellyn. Securing the remaining three spots in the tourney were: Kevin Yantis of Westerville, Ohio, with a 5-under-par 66, and two others at 67, Nike Tour player Lan Gooch and Bryant MacKellar of Rochester Hills, Mich.
Alternates Bobby Gage, Mark Carnevale, John Riegger and Vance Veazey will fill the tournament spots vacated by Westwood, Clarke, Watson and Strange.