Sport

Sutton's win recalls Jones

Back in 1980, when he was the reigning US Amateur Champion, Hal Sutton was widely regarded as the best amateur in the world

By DERMOT GILLEECE
Tue Nov 03 1998 - 00:00

Back in 1980, when he was the reigning US Amateur Champion, Hal Sutton was widely regarded as the best amateur in the world. So it seemed highly appropriate that his victory last Sunday in the USPGA Tour Championship should have come on a course closely associated with the game's greatest amateur.

East Lake, a few miles outside Atlanta, was where nine-year-old Bobby Jones won the club championship in 1911; where he competed as a 13-year-old against seasoned veterans in the 1915 Southern Amateur Championship and where he brought home five coveted trophies: the US Amateur, US Open, British Amateur, British Open and the Walker Cup. It is a million to one bet that the same trophies will ever reside again in the same club.

Jones would certainly have approved of the manner of Sutton's play-off victory over Vijay Singh. The critical, sudden-death teeshot at the 232-yard 18th was hit with a four-wood, followed by a six-foot downhill putt on a treacherously slick green that measured 11.5 on the Stimpmeter.

Top prize of $720,000 meant that at the ripe old age of 40, Sutton reached fifth position in the final money list, his highest placing since 1983, when victory in the USPGA Championship brought him to number one. It was his second win of the season, coming after an unexpected success in the Texas Open on September 27th.

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But will it be sufficient to bring him the Tour's Player of the Year Award, which is to be presented at the Mercedes Championship in January? Or will it go to Singh, who finished as runner-up in the money list at the end of a season which saw him capture the USPGA Championship?

The odds are strongly against both these players. Recent experience suggests that the award will go to David Duval, who achieved record winnings of $2,591,031 from 23 tournaments. These included victories in the Tucson Chrysler Classic, Shell Houston Open, NEC World Series and, most recently, the Michelob Championship in which he was defending the title.

Every year since 1992, the Player of the Year Award has gone to the leading money winner: from Fred Couples to Nick Price (1993 and 1994), Greg Norman, Tom Lehman and Tiger Woods. So, the last player to buck the trend was in 1991 when Couples was preferred to leading money winner Corey Pavin.

That was the year when Couples, third in the money list, added the Johnnie Walker World Championship to American wins in the St Jude Classic and the BC Open.

Mark O'Meara, winner of the US Masters, British Open and World Matchplay titles, has already captured the PGA Player of the Year award, which is calculated on a points per tournament basis.

Meanwhile, Woods, the 1997 USPGA Tour Player of the Year, has had a disappointing season by his elevated standards. With a lone victory in the BellSouth Classic - though he captured the Johnnie Walker Classic in Thailand last January - he finished fourth in the money list and actually earned $220,000 less than last year.

All of which serves to highlight the splendid consistency of Jim Furyk, who, in third place, is ahead of Woods in the list. In 1997, Furyk was fourth in the money list, having compensated with 13 top-10 finishes for the absence of a tournament win. And he was still without a win this season until a long-awaited success in the Las Vegas Invitational last month.