Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508280038
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Now, as U.S. Ryder Cup captain, Wadkins has hit it sideways again. Forget the long grass, baby. His selection of Virginia pal Curtis Strange as one of his two wild-card picks for the Ryder Cup matches Sept.21-24 in Rochester, N.Y., definitely was out of bounds.
Wadkins' pick of Fred Couples was understandable. When his back is sound, Couples is arguably the United States' best golfer.
But Strange? C'mon. The guy hasn't won a tournament in more than six years. He can't even win the Anheuser-Busch Classic in his back yard against one of the weakest fields on tour.
Sure, Strange has been playing better of late. He's up to 36th on the PGA money list this year. That's good for a guy who has finished 53rd, 48th, 99th, 63rd and 41st in winnings since 1989.
Wadkins said he picked Strange as his 12th man because of his ``heart and guts.'' Since when did those attributes count more than ability on the scorecard?
Wonder what Lee Janzen thinks of Wadkins taking care of his buddy?
Not only was Janzen 10 spots ahead of Strange on the Ryder Cup points list, but he has won six tournaments since 1992, including a major ('93 U.S. Open) and an event most players consider a major (1995 Players Championship). Not to mention the fact Janzen leads the 1995 PGA Tour money list with nearly $1.3 million.
Examine the facts and it is, indeed, a Strange pick.
ON TOUR: Two area players, Jerry Wood and Michael Grant, are ranked 16th and 71st, respectively, on the 1995 Hooters Tour winnings list heading into the weekend.
Wood, a Ridgeway golfer who won the 1994 AMF-Signet Open championship, banked all but $3,267 of his $28,267 when he won the Hooters' July stop in Decatur, Ill. The $25,000 first prize was the richest on the minor-league tour this season.
Although he has played only 19 rounds, making three cuts in seven starts, Wood already has recorded eight eagles, tying him for seventh on the circuit.
Grant, who like Wood played at Virginia Commonwealth, hasn't been quite as fortunate. The Radford native has made five cuts in 13 starts, winning $3,492. His best finish has been a tie for 38th at Portsmouth, worth $840.
KING TAKES AIM: Roanoke's Billy King still has a shot at being the PGA's National Senior Club Pro Player of the Year.
King is second behind New York's Gene Borek in the points system that determines the award. King earned the majority of his points by qualifying for and making the cut at the Senior PGA Championship and by qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open.
To catch Borek, King needs a strong finish in the PGA Senior Club Pros Championship, which will be played Oct.17-20 at the Legends Course in West Palm Beach, Fla.
CLOSE BUT NO CIGARS: Virginia Tech's Curtis Deal and Virginia's Jimmy Flippen missed making the low 64 and match play at the U.S. Amateur by the slimmest of margins.
Deal (71-74) and Flippen (74-71) were among 20 golfers who finished tied at 145 after 36 holes of qualifying. The 20 players then had a playoff for the final three spots in match play. Deal and Flippen weren't among the three who went birdie-birdie in the playoff that started Wednesday night and resumed Thursday morning.
Tech's Sean Farrell, the other player with state ties in the tournament, shot 81-72 in qualifying.
ABOUT TIME: Finally, something good has happened for Donna Andrews in 1995.
Andrews scored a hole in one Thursday in the first round of the du Maurier Classic in Montreal. Still, she shot 2-over-par 74.
The Lynchburg native continues to struggle to find the game that brought her more than $1 million in prize money from 1992-94. Andrews was 120th on the LPGA's '95 money list heading into the du Maurier, with $18,804.
SAND BLASTS: Roanoke's Trey Clower made quite a comeback in winning his age group at the Tidewater Junior Amateur in Virginia Beach. Clower, 13, played his last nine holes in 2-under to shoot a final-round 73 and tie for first. He won the title on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff. ... Moss Beecroft couldn't have been surprised when he lost to Claude Williamson in Thursday's quarterfinal round of the VSGA State Senior Amateur. After all, it's an odd-numbered year. All of Beecroft's five titles have come in years ending with even numbers - 1986, '88, '90, '92 and '94. ... Fieldale's Keith Decker will play for the Virginia State Golf Association team in the first Valentine International Goodwill Match to be held Sept.7 in Manakin-Sabot. The match will be an 18-hole team competition preliminary to Hermitage's 53rd Valentine Invitational. The VSGA squad, which also includes Richmond's David Partridge, Springfield's Scott Inman and Yorktown's Allen Barber, will be competing against teams from the West Virginia Golf Association, Maryland State Golf Association and Ligue d'Aquitaine of the French Federation of Golf.
by CNB