A golden week for the bear

NEWPORT COAST - Five weeks from his 60th birthday, Jack Nicklaus

has found new life in his golf game with shots around the world.

Playing Pelican Hill Golf Club as if o7 hef7 designed it, Nicklaus

capped a memorable week by winning the Diners Club Matches with Tom

Watson in the Senior PGA Tour division Sunday, witnessed by millions as

another chamber of commerce afternoon prevailed for ABC television.

On the heels of capturing a father/son tournament at Twin Eagles in

Naples, Fla., Dec. 5 with his son, Gary, Nicklaus opened two golf courses

in Mexico that he designed, then flew into Newport Beach and teamed with

his old rival, Watson, to win $100,000 in the made-for-TV event.

“Yeah, it’s been a good last couple of weeks,” Nicklaus said, after

his team defeated Bruce Fleisher and David Graham, 1 up.

On Saturday, Nicklaus shot an unofficial round of 62 in the semifinals

as the Watson-Nicklaus team blew out Allen Doyle and Dana Quigley, 5 and

4.

“Watching Jack hit it stiff all day (Saturday), I just kept saying to

him, ‘Nice going, Jack. Nice putt, Jack. Nice shot, Jack,”’ Watson said.

“You want (your partner) to be keeping that same frame of mind and you

don’t want to talk to him too much -- you don’t want to mess it up. It’s

like in baseball when a pitcher has a no-hitter -- you don’t want to talk

to him.”

The bear is roaring in his golden years, having devoured Pelican Hill

and set his sights on more golf in 2000.

“It was the opposite (Sunday),” Nicklaus said, referring to Watson’s

solid round that included a 15-foot birdie putt from the fringe at 11 and

12-footer for birdie at 14 to put his team ahead, 3 up, with three holes

remaining.

Nicklaus underwent left hip replacement surgery Jan. 27, and, until

the Father/Son Challenge eight days ago, hadn’t won a tournament of any

kind since The Tradition on the senior tour in 1996.

In the PGA Tour division Sunday, Fred Couples and Mark Calcavecchia

defeated Steve Elkington and Jeff Maggert, 1 up, and split $200,000, the

winning purse for all three teams.

In the LPGA Tour, Juli Inkster and Dottie Pepper three-peated in the

Diners Club Matches, beating Karrie Webb and Kelly Robbins, 4 and 3.

Inkster and Pepper are the only team to win three straight titles in the

event’s five-year history.

The Diners Club Matches, played at Pelican Hill for the first time

after four years in the desert at PGA West in La Quinta, was not held

last year because of a timing conflict with the Presidents Cup.

The event, the first major golf tournament at the Tom Fazio-designed

and Irvine Co.-owned links, drew between 5,000 and 6,500 people Sunday,

tournament director Gary Pollard estimated.

In the senior tour final, Nicklaus sank a five-foot birdie putt on the

first hole, “then turned it over to (Watson) ... my partner played

beautifully today.”

Added Watson: “(Fleisher and Graham) had opportunities about four

times to make putts to win holes and they didn’t do it, and we had kind

of the same opportunities. But we ended up making our putts more than

they did.”

Nicklaus said it’s been “fun to play well again,” and that the Diners

Club Matches, a postseason event as part of the “challenge season,” was

always taken seriously.

“Hey, if I put a tee in the ground, I’m here to play serious,”

Nicklaus said earlier in the event, then shot his “lowest score in 20

years” Saturday.

For Couples, it was his third postseason title in ‘99, having won the

Shark Shootout at Sherwood Country Club, the Skins Game in the desert and

the Diners Club Matches, giving him $910,000 in “challenge season”

earnings. Couples won $769,192 in 16 events this year on the PGA Tour.

“I wish I would’ve thought about (Couples’ postseason success), then I

wouldn’t have worried about making putts, because I’m playing with

Captain Postseason out there,” said Calcavecchia, picked by Couples to be

his partner, after Couples was given a sponsor’s exemption.

“I don’t know why (I have so much success in the postseason),” Couples

said. “I’ve been asked that a lot. But I picked Mark because I enjoy

playing with him and we team together well.”

Saturday, Couples and Calcavecchia defeated Chris Perry and Skip

Kendall, 2 and 1, to advance.

“If I could tee it up with Mark during the regular season, I would,”

Couples said. “We’d probably win all the time.”

For the ladies, Inkster, who joined the LPGA Hall of Fame this year,

and Pepper built a four-hole lead at the turn, then completed their

Diners Club sweep at 15, when Inkster birdied for the clincher.

“We’re a good team and we complement each other,” Inkster said.

“Dottie’s a lot more intense than I am. I keep her loose. It’s pretty

easy (to do that), because we’re good friends off the golf course and I

know I can say anything to her and I don’t have to worry about the

consequences.

“That, and because I’m the only one who can put up with her for 36

holes. Nobody else can.”