Hot Campbell Earns Match With Woods

The hottest golfer in the world is . . . well, Michael Campbell is right up there. Campbell, from New Zealand, has won four times since November and three times in his last four tournaments to move up to No. 65 in the official world ranking.

As a reward, Campbell made the field of next week’s $5-million Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship--and a first-round match with Tiger Woods.

All of the world’s top 64 players will play next week’s event at La Costa with the exception of Jumbo Ozaki of Japan.

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For what it’s worth, this will be Woods’ sixth appearance in the Nissan Open and his fourth trip as a pro.

His results: 1992 (amateur), 72-75 missed cut; 1993 (amateur), 74-78 (missed cut); 1997, 70-70-72-69 (T-20); 1998, 68-73-65-66 (lost playoff to Billy Mayfair); 1999, 69-68-65-70 (T-2).

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Last year, Ernie Els played his first PGA Tour event at the Nissan Open, which he won. Els has already played twice this year and made $429,000. He lost to Woods in a two-hole playoff at the Mercedes Championships and he was fifth at the Sony Open.

Els could have won at Riviera earlier in his career. He equaled the 36-hole tournament record with a 131 and set the 54-hole record with 197 in the 1995 PGA Championship. But he failed to hold a three-shot lead to begin the fourth round and closed with a 72 to finish two shots out of a Steve Elkington-Colin Montgomerie playoff.

That defeat still rankles Els.

“It was a major disappointment,” Els said. “Thank goodness I came back to win here. But it’s hard to forget disappointment like that in majors.”

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Davis Love III on Woods’ ability: “Jack Nicklaus told me Tiger has the most talent of any player he’s ever seen.” . . . The overnight rating for Sunday’s final round of the Buick Invitational on CBS was 8.0--up 25% over last year. It was the highest-rated round for a non-major since the final round of the 1987 Bob Hope Classic. . . . Nike Golf signed three top teachers--Butch Harmon, Rick Smith and Tim Mahoney--to endorsement contracts.