Road to PGA Title Skirts a Cornfield--and Woods

It has been four years since the PGA Championship was held at Valhalla Golf Club in suburban Louisville, Ky., and it’s quite possible that the area is a lot more urban than it was in 1996.

Best way to find the place back then was to follow these simple directions: Turn left at the first cornfield.

Next week at Valhalla, we will learn the answers to three vitally important questions.

* Can Tiger Woods win his fourth major in 53 weeks and his third in 2000?

* Will Ernie Els complete the mini-slam by finishing second in his fourth major this year?

* What’s with the clothes around Valhalla . . . was there a sale on overalls?

As we have learned, anything can happen in the PGA, which is famous for vaulting players to a higher professional level. Since 1986, the PGA was either the first or only major title for 12 of the 14 champions.

So you can see that handicapping the field isn’t easily done. Check that. Handicapping the field wouldn’t be easy except for the fact that Woods is in it.

The U.S. Open and British Open champion is also the defending champion in the PGA, so it’s not much of a stretch to say that Woods is the player to beat. But he always is. Let’s take a quick look anyway at which players figure to be in the hunt Sunday, after you turn left at the first cornfield.

* Woods: He sets up his schedule to play well in the majors and this one is no different. Put it this way: Anybody want to say he can’t win?

* Els: No one has finished second in all four majors in one year, but he has a chance. Does this mean we have to root for him to do it?

* Davis Love III: He tied for 11th at the British Open and tied for seventh at the Masters. He missed the cut in 1996 at Vallhalla, but he won the PGA at Winged Foot the next year.

* Colin Montgomerie: A fixture as a pre-tournament favorite in majors. And, we might as well admit it, he’s going to keep getting mentioned until he finally wins one.

* David Duval: (See Montgomerie).

* Phil Mickelson: (See Montgomerie and Duval). If anyone is used to the late-summer heat, it’s him, since he lives in Scottsdale, Ariz. Besides, who is more due? (You guessed it: See Montgomerie, Duval).

* Stewart Cink: Great ball striker, great iron player, great chance to become the next welcome-to-the-PGA winner.

* Brad Faxon: While the big names were at the British Open, he won the B.C. Open, which isn’t exactly the PGA Tour equivalent of the PGA, but close enough.

* Lee Westwood: He just keeps rolling along in Europe and once he gets used to KFC franchises on every corner, he’s sure to fall in love with Louisville.

* Miguel Angel Jimenez: He tied Els for second at the U.S. Open and obviously can play. Also fills the bill for quirky PGA champion.

TIGER UPDATE

Woods didn’t show up at the Buick Invitational until Tuesday night. Why? He played a practice round at Valhalla in the morning.

By the way, Woods has finished under par in each of his 13 PGA Tour events. No one has ever played an entire season playing each event under par, although Jack Nicklaus was under par 17 times in 18 events and finished at par in the other.

TIGER UPDATE II

Here we go again. Woods has had to deny for the second time a New York Post story that he and his girlfriend, Joanna Jagoda, are getting married.

“The truth isn’t always as exciting as the fiction,” Woods said.

You have to give the Post credit for being consistent, at least. The Post had the same Woods story in February and it wasn’t true then, either.

BEING ERNIE

News item: Els moves up to No. 2 in the Official World Ranking.

Reaction: Uh, he isn’t going any higher.

There is a guy named Woods in front and Els trails Woods 27.26 points to 11.93. What does this mean? Roughly, it means that Els would have to win every tournament for, say, the next two years to overtake Woods.

By the way, Els replaced Duval as No. 2. Duval had been No. 2 since last September.

WE KNOW WHO

In his media interview after winning last week’s PGA Tour event in Castle Rock, Colo., Els never mentioned Woods by name. But he did refer to Woods twice as “you know who.”

And everybody did.

WE KNOW WHAT

Put this one under the headline, “Time Magazine Discovers Golf.”

Woods is on the cover of this week’s Time and featured in an “exclusive” story about how he “risked it all” by reworking his swing. Fine, except he did it three years ago, something that Woods has talked about in nearly every interview in the last 36 months.

What’s next? Three years from now, Time probably will say it has learned that the Lakers won the 2000 NBA title.

WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’

Gary Player on Woods: “The pressures on Tiger will be fantastic; he is the Elvis Presley of golf.”

Better keep him away from those deep-fried sandwiches then, the ones that ballooned Elvis into a blow fish.

Player, 64, one of five golfers to have won all four majors (a list that includes Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Nicklaus and Woods), said he would have loved to play against Woods.

“I don’t know how you’d beat him,” Player said. “All things being equal, Tiger Woods will be the first athlete to become a billionaire. There’s no telling what records he will amass.

“He’s the greatest player the world has ever seen at 24, but he’s not the greatest player who’s ever lived--yet. You look at what happened to Nick Faldo--the best player of the ‘90s--you look at what happened to Seve Ballesteros; you can never automatically say this is a cinch.”

TIGER FACTOR I

Woods is back at work at the Buick Open this week, and ticket sales have more than doubled. Tournament marketing director Mike Mattucci is forecasting total crowds for the week to reach a record 200,000.

TIGER FACTOR II

Activists from the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are planing to demonstrate Aug. 28 at the Woods-Sergio Garcia “Battle at Bighorn” made-for-TV event. Union members are outraged that Woods taped a Buick ad during the SAG strike, according to Daily Variety.

FALLOUT

Remember the Standard Life Loch Lomond, the event before the British Open, where the Mark James controversy overshadowed the tournament and angered the sponsors of three years?

Standard Life announced Wednesday that it’s not renewing its sponsorship.

BEING BRUCE

Multiple choice: When Bruce Fleisher won the Lightpath Long Island Classic, he was?

A. Happy

B. Rich

C. Exhausted

D. Who is Bruce Fleisher?

The answer is C, because playing golf and winning 11 tournaments and earning more than $4 million in less than two years can certainly tucker you out.

Fleisher took last week off to rest up at his home in Ballen Isles, Fla., but he’s back at it again this weekend in the AT&T; Canada Senior Open at St. Charles Country Club in Winnipeg.

“People say it’s easier to win after you’ve won 10 or 11 times . . . but I don’t think so,” he said. “You’ve got to keep proving yourself over and over.”

NICK / MARK, CONT.

Faldo, on James’ decision to quit as vice captain of the European Ryder Cup team: “The [European Ryder Cup tournament committee] has taken the view that the simplest way to quiet things down is that Mark should stand down and not be actively present at the Ryder Cup.

“[The committee] needed to take action because of the potential media regurgitation of the stories. After what happened on the final day of the last Ryder Cup, everybody just wants to get back to playing. Back to 24 guys going at it competitively.”

AND DON’T DROP IT

News item: Greg Norman is chosen to carry the Olympic torch over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Reaction: Better give him a few minutes lead or he could get run down from behind.

WEBB UPDATE

Karrie Webb has won two of the last three LPGA majors and if she wins this week’s $1.2-million du Maurier Classic, she will be the first LPGA player to win three majors in one year since Pat Bradley in 1986.

Webb, who has won five times this year and leads the money list with $1,503,494, took a week off after winning the U.S. Open and spent a few days in the Florida Keys. She caught a 35-pound dolphin.

But can she reel in another major?

“I’m very determined,” Webb said. “Any time I tee off in a major, I set myself up to win. And after winning the U.S. Open, I feel like I really have personally taken a lot of pressure off myself. I feel like anything else I do for the rest of the year is a big bonus.”

Webb already has a du Maurier to her credit and needs a victory in the LPGA Championship for a career grand slam. At 25, she has met all the requirements for the LPGA Hall of Fame except the 10-year career minimum. She will be eligible at the end of 2005.

“Obviously the career grand slam is something that has suddenly become a goal because of winning three majors in the last [12 months],” Webb said.

A FOUR PLAN

The du Maurier is going away after this week’s tournament, a victim of Canadian laws forbidding tobacco companies from sponsoring sporting events. And that may mean the LPGA will be down to three majors in 2001.

If so, Webb offers her own choice as a possible fourth major: the British Open.

SNAKE EYES FOR D.I.

The LPGA’s PageNet Championship that has been played at the Desert Inn Golf Club in Las Vegas since 1996 will be looking for a new home after this year’s finale in November.

The event features the top 30 money winners and it may survive, but the Desert Inn course won’t. Steve Wynn bought the nearly 500-acre property that includes a hotel and casino, and he plans to level everything to build a new mega-resort.

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

The 2001 Toshiba Senior Classic at Newport Beach Country Club has a new date in the Senior PGA Tour schedule, March 2-4. The event is followed by the SBC Senior Classic, which has been held in October, at Wilshire Country Club.

Omega Psi Phi fraternity will hold a tournament Aug. 25 at Montebello golf course. The event benefits the fraternity’s scholarship program. Details: (323) 293-0770.

American Golf has completed more than $1.7 million in capital improvements at El Dorado golf course in Long Beach, in collaboration with the Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine.

AT&T; Pebble Beach Charities distributed $4 million from this year’s tournament.

Genuity Inc., a Massachusetts Internet company, is the favorite to become the new title sponsor of Doral, which would be called the Genuity-Doral Championship.