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Tuesday, March 14
Webb weaving her own history

By Bob Harig
Special to ESPN Golf Online

Karrie Webb has spent a good part of her brief LPGA career playing in the shadow of PGA Tour star Tiger Woods. That makes her achievements easy to overlook.


	Karrie Webb leads the LPGA Tour is almost every key statistical category.

No matter the circumstances, however, it is difficult to miss Webb now.

Just as the Woods turned the PGA Tour upside down last month by matching a victory streak that was more than 50 years old, Webb now has the chance to do the same for the LPGA Tour.

Here's hoping she gets her due.

So far this year, Webb has entered four tournaments. She has won all four.

On Thursday, she puts her streak on the line at the LPGA's Standard Register Ping, a tournament she won a year ago.

Webb, who is just 25 years old, captured her fourth victory on March 5 at the Takefuju Classic in Hawaii when she defeated rival Annika Sorenstam in a sudden-death playoff.

One of the victories came at the Australian Women's Open, which is not an LPGA Tour event. So as far as the LPGA is concerned, she has won three straight tournaments. That doesn't make her feat any less impressive.

Webb's three consecutive victories is the LPGA's longest streak since JoAnne Carner won three in a row in 1982. Unlike Woods, all of her wins have come in the same calender year. Woods won four straight to end 1999, then won his first two events in 2000.

"I'm going to borrow a line (PGA Tour commissioner) Tim Finchem used about Tiger Woods," said LPGA Tour commissioner Ty Votaw. "I'm no longer surprised at what Karrie can do in a given tournament because she's won in a variety of ways."

Webb took last week off, and Sorenstam bounced back to earn a playoff victory over Pat Hurst, giving her the necessary 27th point for LPGA Hall of Fame induction when she becomes eligible by playing the tour for at least 10 years. Webb could join her this year.

If she manages to win again, she'll be within one victory of the tour's record streak of five, set by Nancy Lopez in 1978, the year she was a rookie and won nine tournaments overall.

"I don't think Nancy's record is in jeopardy," Webb said. "You never say never, but it's not my aim to get the record. I just want to keep getting myself in contention to win."

Webb has certainly been doing that. She has 19 LPGA victories in less than five seasons and has 11 top-three finishes in 16 tour starts since last June.

So far, Webb leads the tour in victories, player-of-the-year points, scoring average (69.27) and rounds under par (10 of 11).

"I know I'm playing well," said Webb, who is the tour's leading money winner with $345,000. "But I still find it hard to believe that I'm No. 1 in the world."

Her peers are not surprised. Hall of Famer Beth Daniel recently said the sound of the ball leaving Webb's club is one she's only heard from male players such as Davis Love III.

Laura Davies, who has 18 LPGA titles, said: "She has raised the bar, and now the rest of us have to try to catch her. I don't think anyone can, mind you. Karrie's special."

After this week's tournament in Phoenix, the LPGA convenes for its first major championship of the year at the Nabisco Championship. No doubt, Webb will be the favorite.

"You try to win every tournament you play," Webb said. "But you know that's not possible. To win at all you have to play well and you have to have a little luck."

Cart talk
The PGA Tour Policy Board is expected to meet Wednesday at the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando to review a circuit court of appeals' ruling upholding Casey Martin's right to a ride a golf cart in PGA Tour events.

Martin was invited to play in the tournament by host Arnold Palmer, who testified against Martin at his original trial when he sued for the right to use a cart.

"The board meetings are open to everybody," Martin said. "I'm debating whether I should show up or not. I hope they make the right decision."

The correct decision would be to leave it alone. Martin has proved he belongs, and that he gains no advantage with the use of a cart. The circulatory disorder in his lower right leg makes it extremely painful for him to walk even the short distances between his cart and the greens and tees. And the PGA Tour plays no favorites. If Martin doesn't post the necessary scores, he can't stay.

The tour is pondering whether it should appeal to the Supreme Court, to which Martin responds, "Surely there are more important things the Supreme Court would hear."

But the tour does have a concern that other players will seek the use of a cart. Where does it draw the line?

Although the tour probably wishes it had handled the Martin matter differently, it was correct in asserting its right to make its own rules. Tour officials simply were made to look bad in light of Martin's courageous story.

The court ruling opens the possibility that others will request a cart. Does a player with a bad back get one? What about one who injures a foot? Or does the tour stipulate that only players with birth defects or disabilities so stipulated by the Americans With Disabilities Act get one?

This is where the issue really gets interesting.

Major money
If the PGA Tour can't get the Players Championship to be considered a major, it can at least make it the highest-paying tournament.

Finchem announced last week that the tournament to be played next week at the TPC at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., will have a $6 million purse, with $1,080,000 going to the winner. Both figures are PGA Tour records.

The previous record purse was $5 million, paid at the Tour Championship and the World Golf Championship events.

Bob Harig, who covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times, writes a column every Tuesday for ESPN Golf Online.


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