Exclusion Is Way of the World Tour

By most accounts, the first event of the World Golf Championships--the Andersen Consulting Match Play at La Costa--was a huge success. Great field, good TV ratings, high-profile weekend pairings, a fitting climax to an improved West Coast swing on the PGA Tour.

But, in its second year, there remain questions about the elite tour within a tour and its place in men’s professional golf.

Most players say they like the idea of competing in a limited field of the best golfers in the world. They also don’t mind playing for a $1-million winner’s check and a guarantee of at least $25,000 for showing up. Among the top 64 players in the official world ranking who qualified for La Costa, only one, Jumbo Ozaki, did not play.

With Tiger Woods, who lost to Darren Clarke in the final, playing on the weekend, ABC’s ratings skyrocketed from the inaugural event a year ago. On Saturday, the telecast got a 3.9 national rating and 10 share, up 77% from ‘99; on Sunday, it got a 5.0 and 12, up 39%.

The world’s six major tour governing bodies--the PGA Tour and those of Europe, Australasia, Southern Africa, Japan and Asia--are still tinkering with the schedule of the four world championship events, trying to find spots that work best. There have been some glitches.

Last year, David Duval declined to play in the WGC-American Express Championship in Spain, in part because it was scheduled the week after the Tour Championship, the traditional ending to the regular PGA Tour season. Mark O’Meara, Greg Norman and Fred Couples also skipped it. The tournament will be played in Spain--at the same time, again this year--but next year will be switched to September in the United States.

“I know American Express wanted to have a year-end event, but it’s much better for everyone to move it up,” Davis Love III said.

Whether that timing will be suitable for some international players, however, isn’t yet known.

It also could create a problem for whichever regular PGA Tour event it goes up against, effectively taking the top 60-65 players in the world out of that field. That’s something the Tucson Open, which coincides with the Match Play, and the Reno/Tahoe Open, which coincides with the NEC Invitational in August, already face.

Also next year, the match-play event will be slotted at the beginning of the year, in January at Melbourne, Australia. It will be played the week before the Mercedes Championships in Hawaii.

“I think they might really have a problem with the Match Play next year,” Scott Hoch said. “I know I’m not that interested in traveling all over now. That’s going to be a tough sell.”

Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie already have indicated they don’t plan to play.

The final WGC event this year is the EMC World Cup in Argentina in December, two-man teams from 24 countries in match play. Unlike the three other events, the prize money is unofficial, and from the U.S. viewers’ standpoint, the only way that event is going to register a blip is if Woods is playing. He hasn’t said he will.

“The money makes [WGC events] special,” Hoch said. “But you can’t buy prestige. They’re just too young to be considered really big. They still rank well below the majors or the Tour Players Championship.”

MARTIN UPDATE

The Tucson Open is to the Match Play Championship as the NIT is to the NCAA tournament, the also-rans battling for No. 65. But even in a weakened field last weekend, Casey Martin continued to show promise.

Martin, playing in his fifth tour event this season, finished tied for 17th and earned $37,950 with four subpar rounds. It was his best finish and close to being much better.

“I had a bad final eight holes, three over, and I was very disappointed to finish like that,” Martin said. “But I had a better week and am starting to get some confidence.

“I knew the course, had played it in college, and wanted to play well. I almost really did it. Of course, it helps when the 64 best players in the world aren’t there.”

Had Martin played the final eight holes in one under, the worst he had done in that stretch in any of the first three rounds, he would have finished tied for third and made more than $100,000.

“I’m learning, trying to relax and settle down,” Martin said of his first year on the PGA Tour. “Those last eight holes, I kind of went for the pin and got burned a couple of times. I got caught up in the moment and got overconfident.”

Martin is third on the tour in driving distance at 285.4 yards and fourth in overall driving but 127th in putting.

“I’ve hit the ball really well this year and worked on that in the off-season. I’m making more of a point of putting the ball in the fairway,” he said. “But I haven’t been very sharp on my short game.”

Still no word from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the tour’s effort to overturn the ruling that allows Martin to continue playing with a cart. Martin sued the tour in 1997, seeking to ride a cart because of a circulatory disorder.

STREAK BUSTERS

Jim Carter won at Tucson, his first tour victory in 292 events. It was a mental challenge to keep from looking ahead after he birdied the first three holes Sunday.

“Well, right away those thoughts jump in your head and then you have to slap yourself around because you can’t think like that,” he said. “I mean I’ve done that before and get all excited and you know it just turns into a mess, so I did a very good job of keeping my mind empty and just not thinking about it.”

Carter made his breakthrough a week after Kirk Triplett got his first tour victory, in his 266th event, at the Nissan Open.

MASTER PLAN

With a few possible exceptions, this is the final weekend players can qualify for the Masters, and by the time the official world rankings are determined after play Sunday, a few hoping to get in will be out in the cold. That includes several winners of PGA Tour events since the ’99 Masters.

Besides 16 other criteria, the top 50 players in the world rankings as of March 6 qualify. The most vulnerable on the list is Shigeki Maruyama at No. 49. A poor finish at the Doral-Ryder Open will probably knock him from the top 50.

Paul Azinger, whose stirring victory at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January would have put him in the field at Augusta National under the Masters’ previous eligibility rules, is No. 48. He pulled out of Doral because of a sore left elbow so he can’t help his cause this week. He probably will remain in the top 50, but if a couple of the players nipping at his heels play very well this weekend, the Masters field could be without at least one deserving player.

Billy Mayfair, at No. 56, and Mark Calcavecchia, at 57, need to finish in the top five this weekend to qualify, and Olin Browne (65), Bob May (67) and Bill Glasson (68) need to win, according to Tony Greer of IMG in London, who compiles the world rankings.

Under rules in effect until this year, any player who won a PGA Tour event from one Masters to the next got into the field, but that criterion has been eliminated. That means seven winners since last April--Rich Beem, Brad Faxon, Brian Henninger, J.L. Lewis, Tom Pernice Jr. and probably Carter and Browne-- are out.

Michael Campbell of New Zealand, who had won three of his last four tournaments before losing to Woods in the Match Play event at La Costa, cannot make it into the top 50 this weekend but still has a chance to get to Augusta. The Masters committee is considering offering him one of the invitations it gives to international players not otherwise qualified.

THE OTHER DOMINATOR

Karrie Webb has played three tournaments this season and won them all--the Office Depot in January, the Australian Open (a non-LPGA Tour event) two weeks ago and the Australian Ladies Masters last weekend. She won six events last year, had 22 top-10 finishes and set the LPGA Tour record for prize money at $1,591,959.

Echoing phrases used by PGA Tour players to describe the phenomenon on their tour, runner-up Lorie Kane said Sunday, “Any time Karrie’s in the field, the bar is raised. She’s at a level now that I don’t think anyone else can get to. When she’s not perfect, she plays hard and gets the job done. She’s doing a lot for women’s golf.”

Webb is trying for her third consecutive LPGA victory this weekend in the Takefuji Classic in Hawaii, and she is one shot off the lead after the first round. Nancy Lopez holds the LPGA record of five consecutive victories, set in 1978.

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

Sherwood Country Club is among the sites reportedly being considered for the Williams World Challenge in late November. The unofficial $3.5-million event, sponsored in part by Woods’ foundation, was played at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., in January and won by Tom Lehman. Officials at Sherwood had no comment.

A tournament to benefit the White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles will be held at Woodland Hills Country Club March 13. Details: (323) 260-5739. . . . The 11th Southern California PGA golf expo is being held today through Sunday at the Fairplex in Pomona. Details: (714) 776-4653.