They’re Making Major Moves

Tiger Woods is busy not playing golf this week. He has been out in the ocean on his $20-million, 155-foot yacht “Privacy,” just to get away from it all.

This is a good choice, because for Woods and the rest of the top golfers in the world, it’s nothing but smooth sailing. Halfway through the third month of the season, it’s already shaping up to be one of the most memorable years in a long time.

With the Masters four weeks away, it’s open season on picking favorites, mainly because there are so many of them.

It has become chic to refer to golf’s Big Four of Woods, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson, but there’s no question that they have lived up to their billing.

Woods has won twice, at Torrey Pines and at Doral, he’s 59 under par in three official stroke-play events and averages more birdies per round than anybody.

Singh won at Honolulu and tied for third last week at Doral after four mediocre -- for him -- performances that included a missed cut at Pebble Beach.

Els had three weeks off, then won last week at Dubai. He has been eerily consistent, with a second place, two thirds, a fifth and a sixth, split between the European Tour and the PGA Tour.

Mickelson was the hottest player on the planet until Woods cooled him off at Doral, but Mickelson still has two victories -- at Phoenix and at Pebble Beach -- and he’s a mind-bending 80 under par in his last four stroke-play tournaments.

The game within the game is the race for the No. 1 ranking, which Woods took away from Singh this week. Although Singh thinks he can catch up again, it won’t be this week, and anyway, he probably should keep an eye on Els.

There’s not much separating the top three in the rankings. Woods leads Singh by .48 of a point and Singh’s margin over No. 3 Els is only slightly larger, .57 of a point.

Singh is the only one of the Big Four playing this week at the Honda Classic, but Els is playing the Qatar Masters.

Singh needs 56 points this week to overtake Woods, but even if Singh wins at the Honda, there are only 50 points available because of the field rating value.

Els can bump Singh to No. 3 and take over No. 2 if he wins at Qatar and Singh finishes out of the top 25 at the Honda.

Next week at Bay Hill, Mickelson is the only one of the Big Four who isn’t playing. They will all be at the Players Championship, where No. 1 will be on the line, but that’s clearly not all that’s at stake.

So far, nobody but big-time champions has been winning.

Beginning with the Sony Open, seven tournaments in a row have been won by players who are major winners: Sony (Singh), Buick Invitational (Woods), Hope (Justin Leonard), FBR Open (Mickelson), Pebble Beach (Mickelson), Match Play Championship (David Toms) and Doral (Woods).

(Adam Scott, whose victory at the Nissan Open isn’t recognized by the tour because rain reduced it to 36 holes, has not won a major, but he did win the Players Championship last year.)

There’s not much time for someone to separate from the field before the Masters, and judging by what has been going on this year, chances are it’s not going to happen.

Once Woods docks his boat and picks up his clubs next week at Bay Hill as the No. 1 player, he will again survey the closest applicants for his position, but that’s not even taking into consideration such heavyweights as Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, Toms, Padraig Harrington or Scott.

It could be a major year for the majors, which is heavy on the venues this go-around. Besides Augusta National, the other sites are Pinehurst for the U.S. Open, St. Andrews for the British Open and Baltusrol for the PGA Championship.

The last time there was such a formidable lineup was probably in 2000, when Augusta National was followed by the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, the British Open at St. Andrews and the PGA Championship at Valhalla ... all right, three out of four isn’t bad.

And you might recall who prevailed in those four majors: Singh edged Els to win the Masters, and Woods won the other three.

Nobody is saying that’s going to happen again, and Woods’ winless streak in majors is 10 in a row. The safe play is to say that the race is too close, not just for No. 1, but also in every tournament.

Here’s to the golf’s superpowers, who besides showing their dominance so far, have also created an early-season buzz that doesn’t look to be disappearing any time soon.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Tale of Two Weeks

The Honda Classic is this week’s PGA Tour stop, but the field is usually stronger at the Bay Hill Classic next week. Here are the winners of the events the last five years:

*--* Honda Bay Hill 2000 Dudley Hart Tiger Woods 2001 Jesper Parnevik Tiger Woods 2002 Matt Kuchar Tiger Woods 2003 Justin Leonard Tiger Woods 2004 Todd Hamilton Chad Campbell

*--*