Golf Goes Global With Future Of Game Already Mapped Out, 1998 Will Provide An Intriguing Transition

To say that it is the beginning of the end sounds like a prophecy of doom, yet when the Mercedes Championships starts the 1998 PGA Tour season this week, golf will take a big step toward the next century - and riches undreamed of less than a decade ago.

The upcoming season is the last one before a new TV contract and three new World Golf Championships push the total prize money on the PGA Tour well past the $100 million mark - three times what it was in 1988.

To say that this year will be the end of professional golf as we know it might be an overstatement - but only slightly.

Beginning in 1999, there will be more players from more nations competing in more major championships and playing for more money than ever before.

There is a very real chance that by the end of the century, the best golfer in the world - whomever that might be - will earn more money than a backup shortstop.

And with the leaders of the major golf organizations moving quickly to capitalize on the unprecedented attention brought to the game by Tiger Woods, the game offers the potential for staggering growth.

“If we are at all successful, golf will take its place as a mass sport somewhere in the next century,” PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said.

Woods, in fact, sees expanding the popularity and profitability of golf as a major part of his mission.

“I’d like to dominate the game,” Woods said. “I’d like to be able to make golf one of the core sports of America along with basketball and football.”

There is no more fitting place to begin the transitional season than at the La Costa Resort and Spa, since it is a key player in the changes to come.

Thirty-one players who won on the PGA Tour in 1997 are eligible to play at La Costa and apparently 28 will be on hand.

Greg Norman and Scott Hoch had yet to reserve rooms, indicating they were skipping the event. Bill Glasson, who had off-season surgery, will be on hand - likely to pick up the Comeback Player of the Year Award - but will not play.

It was at the Mercedes 12 months ago that Woods started golf’s incredible year by winning the tournament with a dramatic near hole-in-one on the first playoff hole against Tom Lehman.

This is the last year the season-opening event will be held at La Costa. Beginning in 1999, the tour season will start in Hawaii, providing the opportunity to use the time difference to televise the event in prime time to much of the mainland.

La Costa is not cut out of the picture, however. It will be the site of the 1999 Andersen Consulting World Match Play Championship for the top 64 players on the World Golf Rankings.

Like the NEC Invitational, the World Stroke Player Championship and - beginning in 2000 - the World Team Championship, the World Match Play will have a purse in excess of $4 million, more than any of the four Grand Slam events.

But before the 1999 bonanza can begin, the 1998 season needs to be put into the record books. The year starts with many intriguing questions.

Can Woods maintain the performance and publicity levels he achieved last year, or will his equipment change from Mizuno to Titleist irons hurt him as changes hurt Corey Pavin, Mark Brooks and Steve Stricker last year?

Can David Duval become the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win four consecutive starts on the PGA Tour?

Will the youthful rivals who rose to the competitive challenge presented by Woods continue their high level of play?

Will Pavin, Brooks and Stricker return to form?

Can John Daly find peace to go with his power?

Will Nick Faldo find out where his putting touch is hiding?

Will Colin Montgomerie or Phil Mickelson win a major championship?

Will Vijay Singh ever miss a cut? He’s made 47 in a row.

Will Norman win a major on American soil?

Will anyone ever win two majors in a year again?

That golf has so many compelling questions leading into the new season is just part of the reason that 1998 is so eagerly anticipated.

Woods says he is practicing harder than ever and that he will manage his travel schedule better to ensure that he maintains a peak energy level through the season and does not taper off as he did in the second half of last year.

The last 13 major championships were won by 13 different players dating back to consecutive British Open and PGA Championship victories by Nick Price in 1994. Woods - particularly at the Masters - is a real threat to end that streak.

He will, however, have a ton of competition. Ten of the 31 players who won on the PGA Tour in 1997 were in their 20s, including Ernie Els and Justin Leonard, both of whom won majors.

Duval’s attempt to win four consecutive starts had its momentum interrupted by the end of the season, perhaps taking him off the emotional high achieved during such a stretch.

“You get into a thing where you feel like you are good every day,” said Jack Burke, who won four in a row in 1952 before finishing second in the Masters.

“You just get the feel,” Burke said. “You have a complete understanding and don’t mind going for everything.”

It all adds up to a compelling package and should make for an interesting season before golf truly becomes global in 1999.