Hale Irwin`s victory in the Buick Classic made him the first player to follow a U.S. Open triumph with a victory the next week since 1966.
Irwin matched the feat of Billy Casper, who won the U.S. Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco and then won the Western Open at, you guessed it, Medinah.
Bernhard Langer was the last player to follow a victory in a major with a victory the next week. Langer won the 1985 Masters and followed up the next week at the Heritage Classic. Those are the only two PGA Tour victories for the West German star.
– Wilson Sporting Goods in River Grove had to be pleased with the way the U.S. Open turned out. Irwin and Mike Donald are both Wilson players, and so is third-place finisher Nick Faldo.
– Western Open winner Wayne Levi took the money and ran after two profitable weeks in Chicago. Levi left town with a $180,000 check for winning the Western but was in no mood for conversation after missing the cut at the U.S. Open.
”I`ve got to catch a plane,” he said after he signed his scorecard. ”I just didn`t play well, no excuses.”
Later in the locker room, Levi wouldn`t answer questions about whether the Western victory sapped him at the U.S. Open.
”I`m done talking about that,” he said.
– Jodie Mudd and Payne Stewart have been selected to represent the United States in the 36th World Cup, which will be played Nov. 22-25 at Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando. Mudd won the 1990 Players Championship, and Stewart is the defending PGA champion. It will be the first World Cup appearance for Mudd and Stewart`s second. The World Cup is a 32-nation, two-man event that has been won by the United States 18 times. Ben Crenshaw and Mark McCumber were the last Americans to win, taking the 1988 title. Last year Mark McCumber and Paul Azinger finished third in a 36-hole, rain-shortened competition.
– Mark Calcavecchia finished second in the Irish Open behind Spain`s Jose-Maria Olazabal but isn`t blaming his caddy. Calcavecchia`s wife, Sheryl, carried for him. If he had listened to her on the first day, when he shot a 66, he might have been closer than three shots behind Olazabal.
Sheryl suggested an 8-foot birdie putt would swing to the right, and he ignored the advice.
”I didn`t think it would and I missed it,” Calcavecchia said. ”She read four putts for me and got them all right.”
