DATE: Wednesday, September 17, 1997         TAG: 9709170713

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C8   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: FORE! YOUR WEEKLY GOLF REPORT 

SOURCE: BY ROB AMEN, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   43 lines

TICKET TO RYDER CUP

Leigh Taylor never took a Spanish class while attending Kempsville High School because ``my mother begged me to take French.''

Now, he's wishing he'd taken that Spanish. Taylor, 44, has won Cross Creek Apparel's sweepstakes for a trip to the Ryder Cup at Valderrama Golf Club in the southern region of Spain from Sept. 26-28.

Taylor, formerly a PGA club professional in Philadelphia, is visiting family in Norfolk while he is between jobs. Taylor saw a sweepstakes card in Golf Digest that required the names of the U.S. Ryder Cup team participants, and although the team would not be solidified until a few days later, he filled it out and submitted it Aug. 10.

Five days later, Cross Creek called to tell him he had won after his card was the first selected.

``It was just kind of luck of the draw,'' said Jim Taylor of Gillis Public Relations, a firm representing Cross Creek. ``And he was the luckiest.''

Leigh Taylor doesn't care how he won. He's just happy he did.

``(The Ryder Cup) is sponsored by the PGA of America, which I belong to,'' he says. ``This is a very special event to me. I consider it the World Series or Super Bowl of golf.''

For the first time, this year's Ryder Cup, which pits the 12 best golfers from the United States against the best from Europe, will be held outside the United States and United Kingdom.

Cross Creek is making sure Taylor is quite comfortable. His package, estimated at $8,500, includes round-trip airfare, six nights hotel accommodations for two, meals, two rounds of golf at local courses and tickets to all three days of Ryder Cup competition.

But all things being equal - and don't get him wrong, he doesn't want to sound ungrateful - Taylor said he believes it would actually be better to watch the tournament on TV. Taylor said because of the competition's format, which includes many match-play pairings, it will be difficult to follow everyone he wants to watch.

Of course, that doesn't mean he's willing to give up his tickets, even if people are willing to take them off his hands.

``Several people have offered,'' Taylor says, ``but I said no thanks.''

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu