Finalists Going for the Magabucks

CARLSBAD —  Golf will find an instant millionaire today at La Costa and if his public recognition factor is somewhere in the beige range, so what?

You take Jeff Maggert and Andrew Magee and you wonder if it matters that we know more about Dennis Rodman’s nose rings than these two guys in the final of the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship.

The way this game is played, the bottom line is, well, the bottom line, which makes the $1-million winner’s share in today’s 36-hole final pretty interesting, even if the players aren’t.

Actually, Maggert and Magee have some fairly compelling stuff going for them, besides the opportunity to have the best money-making year of their lives in one day.

Maggert is the only player in the history of golf to win a tournament at night. That was in 1993 at the Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic when he finished under floodlights after bad weather delayed the tournament.

As for Magee, last year he clipped a finger in a chain saw accident and still finished third a week later at the Bob Hope Classic. Magee has won three times, but not since 1994.

All right, so their histories aren’t that weighty, but you can’t knock two guys who put themselves in position to become very rich, very quickly.

The full force of the situation was not lost on Magee.

“One meeeeeeellllion dolllllllars!” Magee said. “I like money.”

This affection became evident Saturday when Magee defeated John Huston, 3 and 1, in the semifinals. Maggert’s margin was narrower, a 1-up decision over Steve Pate.

The runner-up in the final of the first event of the World Golf Championships gets $500,000. Pate and Huston meet in an 18-hole consolation match, with the winner receiving $400,000 and the loser $300,000.

Maggert was three down after 11 holes, but eagled the par-five No. 12 to get closer and found himself only one down when Pate bogeyed No. 13. After he birdied No. 15, the match was all square and Maggert took the lead for good on No. 16 when Pate missed the fairway, the green and an eight-footer for par.

Maggert is the higher-ranked player at No. 24 and Magee is No. 50--not that it matters much, Maggert said. The public probably would have preferred that somebody besides Maggert and Magee be the two guys left today, but the absence of golf’s hierarchy is one of the risks of match play.

“That’s just a fact of sports in general,” Maggert said. “People want to write about the Chicago Bulls. They don’t want to read about the L.A. Clippers.

“I know the players have said it many times this week, that there really aren’t any upsets in this tournament. You can write it again or not, but it’s true.”

Magee started slowly, which could be explained by the fact that he never thought he’d be around this long. He had to buy a couple of pairs of socks because he ran out of clean ones.

Huston was 3-up after three, but Magee started chipping away, once he chose a different mental approach.

“I was thinking about the consolation match,” he said.

Magee has a different set of priorities now. Maggert said he was more interested in winning than the money, but Magee didn’t sound as if he agreed.

“Money is a motivating factor in this tournament,” he said. “A $5-million purse and a million dollars for the first-place guy. It’s a big deal. I’m sure it’s going to make all the other guys who didn’t qualify very upset when Jeff and I just pass everybody on the money list. If I was in Tucson [site of the concurrent PGA Tour event], I would be going, ‘These guys played six or seven rounds and they just killed us.’ ”

The finalists may have divergent views on preparation for a potential $1-million payday. Maggert said he was tired and appeared to be ready for bed after his match. Magee said he wasn’t.

“I’m not drained,” he said. “This is a spa.”

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Final Showdown

The paths the finalists took in the Match Play Championship at La Costa. TV coverage begins at 11 a.m. today on Channel 7:

JEFF MAGGERT

1st: defeated Fred Funk, 2-up.

2nd: defeated Nick Price, 1-up.

3rd: defeated Bernhard Langer, 1-up.

4th: defeated Tiger Woods, 2 and 1.

5th: defeated Steve Pate, 1-up.

ANDREW MAGEE

1st: defeated Darren Clarke, 1-up.

2nd: defeated Thomas Bjorn, 2 and 1.

3rd: defeated Bill Glasson, 1-up.

4th: defeated Shigeki Maruyama, 1-up.

5th: defeated John Huston, 3 and 1.