Circus of the stars arrives in Brookline

Back - Index - Submissions - - What is RSS? Date: Sep 24, 2099 Source: Golf Web Submitted By: RYDER CUP Sept. 22, 1999 Circus of the stars arrives in Brookline By Melanie Hauser GolfWeb Columnist BROOKLINE, Mass. -- For a few brief moments, Bruce Lietzke and Bill Rogers entertained the idea of a challenge match. After all, they were a pretty formidable duo in the old days. Held down the top spot on the ladder at the University of Houston dorm, in fact. Dusted the best. Even if it was twentysomething years ago. So how about a game between Captain Ben's assistants vs. Captain Ben's Kids? How about not. "I saw some Tiger wrist action that dazzled me as much as some of his shots," Lietzke said. "We saw some hand-eye coordination like we've never seen before." Players. Wives. Celebs. You name it, they've stepped up to the ping pong table in the team hospitality suite in the past few days and let it fly. Forget about the course guys. The U.S. Team hospitality suite is the place to be this week. Tiger Woods vs. Jim Furyk last night went into sudden death. Rumor has it Tiger won the last five points to take the match. And Payne Stewart? He and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler lost to Mark O'Meara and Rose Lietzke, then Stewart went to his knees -- he literally played on them -- and blew out Jeff Maggert something like 21-3. "That tells me," O'Meara said, "that Jeff Maggert needs a little work on his ping pong." You want laughs? Drop by some night. You can kick back and relax, nibble all you want, challenge for the ping pong table, watch season premiers on a big screen TV, play video games or even gaze at an endless stream of People magazine cover stars. Take Tuesday night. The Backstreet Boys, minus blond heartthrob Nick Carter, dropped in to chat with Woods and David Duval. They're all big golfers except Nick, whose excused absence gave the other 4 group members more time to ask questions. Can an invitation to Pebble Beach be far behind? Tyler, who's as well know as actress Liv's father as he a musician, stuck his head through the door -- to star gaze himself and get a few trips. Hey, even Prince Andrew dropped in. "I thought they said the Beach Boys were coming," Lietzke chuckled. "And in come the Backstreet Boys. I missed a couple of generations." His daughter Christine didn't. The 13-year-old's room is plastered with BB -- as a Backstreet Boys -- posters. "She's probably going to kill me because she wasn't here," Lietzke said. And it didn't stop with last night. The BBs hung around and walked inside the ropes with Woods during Wednesday's practice round. No word on the whereabouts of Steven Tyler -- or daughter Liv. Or Prince Andrew. "I haven't figured out if they're hanging with us or we're hanging with them," one player said shaking his head. Next up? Quite possibly gala star Celine Dion, Michael Jordan, John Elway or Mario Lemieux. Take your pick. Or wait for Presidents Bush and Clinton or presidential hopeful George W. Bush to drop by. They won't need in-the-ropes armbands, either. But the media crew of 900 here to chronicle this 33rd Ryder Cup? Only 74 of them are allowed inside the ropes, period. Hal Sutton wasn't fazed by the BBs or Tyler, but was hopeful of a Jordan sighting Tuesday night. He and wife Ashley hung out for a while, until he decided it was time to turn in. "I would have stayed to see a guy who's been the best at everything he does in his sport everyday," Sutton said. Turns out he should have dropped by Jordan's course-side rental house. After two days in Nantucket, he, Elway and Lemieux catered a dinner for a few close friends -- and one Ryder Cup caddie. Wednesday they flew over to play 18 somewhere in the state of New York. The Ryder Cup wives, by the way, did lunch. Brad Faxon dropped by to cheer the team on and found himself on local radio talking about his B.C. win. Billy Andrade is on site helping out a local television crew. We're not sure who'll turn up next. As for the golf? Oh yeah. That's coming up. Friday to be exact. But let's get through the star-studded, sequin gowns and tuxes Ryder Cup gala first. And then there are the opening ceremonies where celeb golfer Glenn Frey will perform. And the Friday night gala honoring Arnold Palmer, music by soundtrack impresario John Williams. Now about those team meetings . . . and, by the way, the little 30-minute get together to run over the rules in the team building doesn't count. That done, the players flew the coop -- to the practice tee, the practice green, the hotel and the boys on the Hogan staff -- Justin Leonard, Sutton and Steve Pate -- gathered for a team photo at the chipping area. No celebrities, incidentally, involved. "We've only had one good meeting so far," Lietzke said, "We're trying to schedule another. But we haven't had time. We've got to schedule one." We'd suggest the ping pong table, but Bushes -- George and George W. -- might want to get in a game or team up against the Clintons. May we suggest instead Jordan's house? The food's great and there's no one there who wants to meet them. They could care less. They all know 'em. Related Links: More Ryder Cup features We welcome your comments in our Feedback Forum Home | Scores | Tour Schedules | Players | Stats | Shop | SportsLine Copyright © 1999 PGA TOUR, GolfWeb and SportsLine USA, Inc. All rights reserved Comment on this item. Recent Comments Submitted by: johnansaz http://imrdsoacha.gov.co/silvitra-120mg-qrms Comment on this item. Next Item: RollingStone.com and TDK Team Up to Help Music Lovers Create a `90s Music Time Capsule Prev Item: Backstreet Boys in East Rutherford