As Woods Takes a Break, Martin Is Driven to Play

Tiger Woods hasn’t played since the Masters. That doesn’t mean he has been lazy or anything. Last week, he did a shoot with Nike at his Isleworth retreat in the Orlando, Fla., area and this week he was in New York on an American Express commercial shoot.

The corporate Tiger is bullish on the market, all right.

Then there is the golfer Tiger, who will be at work again in two weeks at the Byron Nelson Classic.

Actually, Woods is going to be seen in public before that, at a Tiger Woods Foundation junior clinic in Oklahoma City, May 6-7.

Woods’ schedule is always something to behold, most of the time because he doesn’t reveal it until the last minute. But because he is the preeminent player in the world, we’ll take a peek.

After the Nelson, Woods heads to Hamburg, Germany, to defend his title in the European PGA Tour’s Deutsche Bank SAP Open, which means he won’t play in the Colonial at Fort Worth, which is the same week.

Woods is the defending champion at the Memorial, the week of May 22, but won’t play the Kemper Open the next week because he has another foundation clinic in Denver the weekend of June 3-4.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post quoted an unnamed tournament director as saying Woods’ five-year endorsement deal with Buick amounts to nothing more than appearance fees to play the four Buick-titled events--and appearance fees are not allowed.

“That doesn’t leave many openings on his schedule,” the tournament director said.

Good point. And there’s going to be one fewer if Woods ever finds out the identity of that tournament director.

MARTIN UPDATE

As if he doesn’t have enough problems, Casey Martin is playing this week at Houston despite two bulging disks in his neck that he probably got while lifting luggage.

Martin hasn’t played in three weeks, since he missed the cut at the BellSouth. In all, Martin has missed four of eight cuts and has only one finish better than a tie for 61st--a tie for 17th at the Tucson Open.

Martin is No. 152 on the money list with $57,018, but he is No. 2 in driving distance to John Daly.

Martin, who shot a first-round 70 at Houston, still hasn’t received notice from the PGA Tour whether it will continue its court fight against his right to ride a cart during tour events, but that appears to be the least of his worries right now.

He is playing four consecutive weeks--at Houston, New Orleans, the Nelson and Colonial--and is probably going to enter local U.S. Open qualifying in Austin after the Colonial.

Martin’s agent, Chris Murray of Imani Sports, said the USGA has indicated it will not push the cart issue if Martin qualifies for the Open.

“The whole issue seems to have died down a little bit,” Murray said. “But Casey hasn’t been out there, either.”

Martin also has asked for a sponsor’s exemption into the Memorial. With his bad leg, disk problems, four weeks in a row and U.S. Open qualifying, chances are it’s going to be a difficult road for Martin.

REMEMBER HER?

The last time we saw Karrie Webb was, well, when? It was when she won the Nabisco Championship by 10 shots. That was only 4 1/2 weeks ago, just barely long enough to count the $611,629 she has won already this year.

With four victories and a second place, Webb has about a $330,000 lead on No. 2 Annika Sorenstam in the money race, which means Sorenstam has a chance to catch up by, say, August, if she really works hard.

Meanwhile, Webb is returning to the golf course, providing she can still find her way there. She is playing the Chick-fil-A this week at Atlanta.

Webb says she is rested and ready to go.

“This month off has definitely helped,” she said.

“I still feel really good about my game. I mean, the last tournament I played in, I won. So I have all good feelings.”

Naturally, Webb leads the LPGA Tour in victories, money, scoring average, top-10 finishes and rounds under par. She probably also leads in comparisons to Woods, another dominator.

Webb said she would be interested in competing against Woods.

“I haven’t spoken to him and I don’t think there have been any discussions in the near future at least to have a match like that,” Webb said.

“I think it could work. . . . You could put me forward enough on the tee that I’d hit it as far as him off the tee, but then if we’re in the same position on the fairway . . . we’re not hitting the same club into the green. So I don’t think you would ever be able to set up a golf course [so] that every single person thought it was fair.

“It would look so ridiculous because he would hit it so much further than me.”

TV DEAL UPDATE

The Senior PGA Tour’s unusual television deal with CNBC beginning in 2001 means that many of the 33 televised events will be taped and shown later in the evening so they will not conflict with PGA Tour events.

Is this a good idea? Commissioner Tim Finchem believes so, which is why he agreed to the four-year deal that the Hollywood Reporter says commits 60% of the commercial time to CNBC control and pays the tour rights fees of $12 million a year.

As for player reaction, leading money winner Bruce Fleisher says it can’t be bad.

“I know we have struggled with television,” he said. “I don’t really understand why ESPN is bowing out. Hopefully, the new network can pick up a different venue of spectator. . . . It might be time for a different style.”

CNBC reaches an estimated 72 million households, about 5 million fewer than ESPN, which has seen its Senior PGA Tour ratings decline in recent years.

PUTT FOR DOUGH?

Uh, this isn’t the way it’s supposed to work, is it?

Mike Springer, Russ Cochran and Rick Fehr are the top three putters, according to the PGA Tour statistics, but they are No. 141, No. 63 and No. 81 on the money list.

Meanwhile, Woods, David Duval and Hal Sutton are the top three in total driving and are No. 1, No. 8 and No. 2 on the money list.

IT’S PAR

So Woods is the most under par of anyone on the tour at 81 under. Any guess who is second? Yes, it’s Steve Flesch at 77 under.

HEALTH UPDATE

Scott Verplank, the first-round co-leader last week at Greensboro, is the only PGA Tour pro who plays with an insulin pump to control his diabetes. The pump replaces insulin injections.

Kelli Kuehne, Sherri Turner and Michelle McGann also use the insulin pump.

NO FREE THROW

It owns the Sacramento Kings, if that isn’t hard enough in the playoff series against the Lakers, but Maloof Sports and Entertainment has taken on another difficult assignment: bailing out the senior tour’s Gold Rush Classic, which lost Raley’s as its title sponsor after nine years.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

Next year’s PGA Tour schedule returns the Nissan Open to its usual spot as the anchor of the West Coast Swing. That’s because the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship is being moved up to the season-opening tournament at Melbourne, Australia, followed by the Mercedes Championship at Kapalua (which runs opposite the Tucson event).

The rest of the West Coast schedule includes the Sony Open at Honolulu, the Phoenix Open, the AT&T; at Pebble Beach, the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and then the Nissan Open at Riviera.

How the quality of the field at Riviera will be affected is uncertain, although it has been helped the last two years when the match-play championship followed the Nissan and the top players decided to play Riviera to get ready.

Next year, they don’t have that event to keep them around, so those players who do not enjoy the five-day Hope might leave for Florida early. At the same time, the West Coast prize money is a hefty inducement to stick around . . . because if there’s one thing the pros need, it’s more money.

IT’S HERE

Dot-com note of the week: The official Web site of the 2000 U.S. Open is now online at www.usopen.com. More than 30 million are expected to log on to the site.

TWIN UPDATE

Remember Aree and Naree Wongluekiet, the 13-year-old Thai twins who played the LPGA Nabisco Championship? And Aree showing up the LPGA stars when she tied for 10th?

Well, the Wongluekiets are at it again. They have accepted sponsor’s invitations into the LPGA’s Wegmans Rochester International, June 8-11 at Locust Hills Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y.

This will be the sisters’ third LPGA event. They failed in Monday qualifying at Naples. Naree missed the cut at the Nabisco, where Aree was tied for fourth going into the back nine on Sunday.

Aree is the No. 1-ranked junior and Naree is No. 3.