Section B · Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, October 29, 1997
Woods vs. Irwin
Although Woods most likely will win the PGA Tour award, Irwin's appearance with the Senior's Tour was record-tying. This year, the competition seems based more on youth than performance.
By Ron Sirak The Associated Press
HOUSTON — Player of the year honors could be determined this week but not entirely at the Tour Championship. Tiger Woods has the PGA Tour award wrapped up, but maybe Hale Irwin had the best year in golf.
It's too bad there's not a vote for the best overall season, no matter what the tour.
Maybe then there would be a little more drama surrounding the Tour Championship rather than the feeling that 30 guys, who have already had good years, are looking to pick up one more check.
The tension is gone from last year when Tom Lehman, Phil Mickelson and Mark Brooks were fighting it out for Player of the Year. This year the award simply has been wrapped up and sent to Woods.
Perhaps the loss of drama is a byproduct of "Tigermania," especially in the dizzy days after Woods won the Masters by an astounding 12 strokes. Talk was of Grand Slam, double-digit number of victories and $2 million in winnings.
And some of what was lost was the remarkable year Irwin put together on the Senior PGA Tour. He did more of those things than Woods.
While the top 30 money winners on the PGA Tour gather this week at Champions Golf Club to play for the $720,000 first prize at the Tour Championship, Irwin is playing for a more modest sum in Los Angeles.
But he also is playing for history at the Ralphs Senior Classic. For the record, Irwin is the first player on any single tour to win $2 million in a season.
His nine victories this year tie the senior record set by Peter Thomson in 1985 and is the most won by a male on the U.S. or European tour since Sam Snead won 11 times in 1950. Mickey Wright won 13 tournations on the LPGA Tour in 1963.
The knee-jerk reaction might be to dismiss Irwin's accomplishments because the accomplishments came on the Senior PGA Tour. To do so would be to underestimate the mental and physical strain of competing—and winning.
"It's hard to stay on that high as many times as I have this year," Irwin said as he got ready to try for his record 10th victory this week. "Winning, and I don't care at what level, on any tour, anybody against whom you want to talk about, winning takes its toll."
To say that Irwin's nine victories were diminished because he won on the senior tour would be the same as demeaning the Florida Marlins because they did not play the Yankees or the Orioles in the
World Series
World Series.
The bottom line is that they won.
Compare Woods and Irwin by the numbers:
Woods: Should he be this year's best gait?
Woods has four PGA Tour victories this year to nine by Irwin on the Senior PGA Tour.
on senior FAU 104.
■ Woods has won $1,969,233.
Irwin has won $2,131,364.
■ Woods will take a average per round in 69.02. Irwin is at 68.93.
■ Woods has played 41.5 percent of his rounds in the 60s. Irwin has played 53.6 percent of his rounds in the 60s.
Perhaps the most amazing thing Irwin did was maintain his level of play for an entire season. The longest stretch he went without a victory was six
tournaments, and he had two seconds, a fourth and a fifth among those six.
Woods, on the other hand, peaked early, winning three times by early May. But he has not won since the Western Open on July 6 — a streak of seven winless starts — and hasn't contended in a major championship since the Masters.
Woods played 30 of his first 34 rounds of 1997 in the 60s but has been below 70 in only 13 of 43 rounds, beginning with the final round of the Colonial in Mav.
Despite tailing off slightly, Woods already has wrapped up Player of the Year as determined by the PGA of America's points system. With twice as many victories (four) this year as anyone plus his record victory in the Masters, Woods is likely to receive the same honor in voting by his peers on the PGA Tour.
Maintaining pace and composure through an entire 10-month season is perhaps something the 21-year-old Woods will learn with age.
"I think I've just applied myself better," Irwin, 52,
said. "I've stayed focused. We've been more patient."
Woods has shown a decided lack of patience, especially on hard courses like the ones at the U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship, Canadian Open and Ryder Cup.
Irwin said his mental approach was the key to his success this year. He said that he sought to just let it happen rather than trying to make it happen.
Irwin said that one of the things he learned with age was not to try to win a tournament too early on Saturday or Sunday.
That's the kind of wisdom that comes with age. And it's the kind of wisdom that should make Irwin player of the year.
Winless Colts lose Harbaugh
Team defends actions after brawl with Kelly
The Associated Press
The Indianapolis Colts, the only winless team in the NFL, will be without their starting quarterback for at least a couple more weeks.
INDIANAPOLIS — The loss of Jim Harbaugh after an altercation with Jim Kelly could not have come at a worse time.
"Coming in the middle of the season, it is not good timing," admitted Harbaugh, who was put on the Colts' nonfootball injury list yesterday because of a small fracture in his throwing hand.
After former Buffalo quarterback Kelly, now an NBC announcer, called Harbaugh a baby who lacked courage on the field, Harbaugh lost his temper.
On Saturday, a day before the Colts played the Chargers, Harbaugh confronted Kelly in San Diego and slugged him.
Kelly did not mention the incident during Sunday's telecast of the game.
But Ed Kilgore, sports director of Kelly's weekly television show on WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, said Monday night that Kelly said he was shoved against the wall and that the two wrestled on the floor, but Kelly does not remember Harbaugh punching him.
Meanwhile, the Colts, who also will be without defensive end Tony Bennett at least two more weeks because of a knee injury, are off to their worst start since 1991, when they finished 1-15.
Harbaugh said they had settled their differences.
"No one anticipated anything like this," Colts director of football operations Bill Tobin said. "Those (Kelly) statements were not true.
"He (Harbaugh) is a very honorable individual. He has played through a lot of injuries."
excuse
H a r b augh's
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but he
said he
under-
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quarterback took a swing at Kelly
Coach Lindy Infante did not
"Everybody has to understand this is a very competitive business, and sometimes people don't realize those of us being written about and talked about are human beings. We have feelings."
With Harbaugh sidelined — and docked about $147,000 each game he misses — Paul Justin will be the Colts' quarterback. He was designated the starter last week, before the Kelly fraces, because of a sprained right ankle Harbaugh suffered against Buffalo the previous Monday night. Justin is 2-2 as a starter, with all of his career starts coming when Harbaugh has been injured.
New interpretation of law taxes franchises' patience
ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals, Rams and Blues oppose an effort by the city to apply a 5 percent amusement tax to the full price of luxury suites and other exclusive seats at their games.
The Associated Press
The tax is applied to the gross receipts of sports admission charges minus the sales tax collected by the state.
At issue is what constitutes an admission charge.
The three teams have been paying the tax only on the portion of the ticket they say admits people to the game itself. They contend the rest goes for special amenities and isn't subject to the tax.
Depending on the team and seating area, that
includes items such as roomier seats, access to special restaurants and bars, valet parking, telephones, closed-circuit televisions and private restrooms.
"They may call it what they want, but it's still part of the admission cost." said Thomas Nash, St. Louis License Collector. "You can't get in the car."
Cardinals president Mark Lamping complained that Nash was trying to jack up the tax paid on admissions by reinterpreting an existing ordinance.
The Cardinals have been paying the tax on such seating at Busch Memorial Stadium the same way "for years and years and years," he said.
Blues president Mark Sauer and Rams vice president Bob Wallace said their clubs also disagree with Nash.
Nash has not estimated how much more tax money the city could get with his new interpretation but has said it would be at least several hundred thousand dollars a year.
The "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" reported yesterday that its analysis showed the city would pull in about $320,000 more this year from the 118 luxury suites leased at Rams games. That money would come
through Nash's application of the tax to the yearly fees paid to lease the suites, which range from $0,000 to $110,000.
individual seats inside the suites. That amount produces about $34,200 in amusement tax money.
The team says it should be paying the tax only on an additional $45-per-game ticket price charged for the more than 1,600
Also at issue at the dome are "Rams Club" seats. The team offers for lease 6,500 such seats at annual rates varying from $700 to $2,200. This year, about 6,100 were sold.
At Busch Stadium, the Cardinals charged $100 a game last year for each of the new Cardinal Club seats built close behind home plate.
With 10 regular and preseason games this year, that breaks down to from $70 to $220 a game, depending on the seat. The team says that only $50 to $45 of that pergame price is for admission and thus subject to the tax
But less than a third of that charge — $30 — was considered an admission fee on which the amusement tax was owed.
Team controller Bradford Wood, in a letter to Nash's office last October, said $22.45 of the $100 fee was for food, $12.80 for beverages, $10 for valet parking and $24.75 for "club service."
This season, the tickets cost $105. Lamping said the breakdown was proportional to last year's. The Cardi-
nails also pay amusement tax just on part of the amount they charge for their party boxes, luxury boxes and diamond suites. Nash said he hoped to resolve the issue in private meetings with the teams but that it was possible that the matter could end up in court.
Nash, who took office in 1991, acknowledged that he was taking a different interpretation of the amusement tax ordinance than was applied in the past and was simply reading the ordinance in its own words.
Acceptance of 'clap skate' annoys U.S. speed skaters
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — U.S. speed skaters are upset about the sound of two skates clapping.
The clap skate, a technological innovation in a sport where equipment has been virtually unchanged for centuries, has moved unknowns to championship status on the eve of the Winter Olympics.
And even though the new skate has helped some of America's top speed skaters attain personal bests, they are not so sure this boost in speed is what they need.
"It was such a pure sport. Now, we have this machine," said Chris Witty, the top U.S. woman skater and the overall winner at the World Sprint Championships last year.
The clap skate has been around for 10 to 15 years, but the world's elite skaters did not start using it until last winter.
Developed in the Netherlands, the skate has a normal-size blade and boot. But the blade is hinged at the toe, allowing the full runner to stay in contact with the ice as the skater glides. increasing the force on the track.
As the blade comes back in contact with the heel of the boot, it makes a ratcheting "clap-clap-clap," a distinct departure from the whispering brush of traditional skates.
"It's noisy," Witty said. "It's not that nice swooshing."
Speed skating has been the bellwether of U.S. Olympic success in recent Winter Games, with Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen grabbing the gold. Both retired after the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
Younger skaters such as Witty of West Allis, Wis., and KC Boutiette of Tacoma, Wash., have not yet turned into consistent winners.
"You don't have to be technically perfect with this skate," Boutiette said. "People no one ever heard of were turning in unbelievable times."
Witty and Bouttiette, the men's 1,500-meter silver medalist at this year's World Allround Championships, estimated the clapper could trim lap times by a full second in middle-distance races, such as the 1,000 and 1,500.
The Dutch and German teams, always strong, have been dominating with the help of clap skates. And Americans reluctantly have turned to the skates to stay competitive.
"My first reaction to this was, 'OK, I'm going to get a mountain bike and put studded tires on it and take that to the starting line and see what they say,' Bouttiette said. "Or maybe a little platform on skates, so I could race sitting down."
The International Skating Union reviewed the new equipment and said it was legal. Bouttette said that's fine. But with the Winter Olympics just four months away, a moratorium might be in order.
"Maybe they should hold this back until after the games and then let it in," he said. "If this had come in this year instead of last, we'd be in real trouble. But you can't change anything. You have to go with the flow."
There's also a problem obtaining the new equipment. European blade manufacturers won't sell the clappers to the companies that make U.S. skates, and it's taken rush orders by domestic manufacturers to get the new technology onto American feet, the skaters said.
"It was almost a personal thing against the American team," Boutte said. "The owner of the (European blade) company called the Americans lazy. I told him, 'How can you say that when you've made the laziest skate ever.'"