Woods Remains Best Golfer Around

The clear front-runner in the Fuzzy Thinking award of the week goes to all of those who subscribe to the increasingly trendy theory that Tiger Woods didn’t play well at the British Open because the Grand Slam was out of the question and he simply lost interest.

As if Tiger would lose interest in any major.

There has never been a golfer who inspired so much hand-wringing and whispers of slumps when he goes eight whole weeks without winning as Tiger has done.

It’s true he hasn’t won a major since April, and it’s also true that he hasn’t played as well as he did when he won four times in five tournaments from late March to the first week of June, but it’s also undeniably true that Woods will once again be the heavy favorite at the PGA Championship next week at Atlanta Athletic Club, the fourth and final major of the year.

The Memorial was Woods’ last victory and since then his results have all been traveling in the wrong direction: tie for 12th at the U.S. Open, tie for 16th at the Buick Classic, tie for 20th at the Western Open and tie for 25th at the British Open.

Woods had 30 consecutive rounds of par or better, a span that covers the last two rounds of Pebble Beach through the last round of the Memorial. However, in his last four tournaments, Woods has had five rounds over par, compared to two rounds over par in his first 10 tournaments of the year.

After he played the made-for-TV event at Bighorn on July 30, Woods flew to Colorado and went fishing. He decided not to enter this week’s Buick Open and flew home to Isleworth in Florida, where Woods said he spent his first night in his house in 21/2 months.

Woods decided rest was more important than tournament golf, although he has worked on his game this week in Florida.

Woods has never played at Atlanta Athletic Club. When he arrives, Tiger will have a chance to become the first player to win three consecutive PGA Championships since Walter Hagen, who won four in a row from 1924-27.

In any event, Woods is once again the man to beat. That is, unless he loses interest.

The Daily Daly

News item: John Daly, 35, marries for the fourth time.

Reaction: He thus completes the career grand slam.

Tiger Tracks

A sure sign that Woods has placed golf squarely in the mainstream media: Newsweek magazine, in its “Conventional Wisdom” item, gives Woods a down arrow: “Losing streak bad enough, junk-sport ABC match bombs in ratings. Just do it.”

Wow, three semi-slams in one sentence--his golf, his Bighorn match and his main sponsor. Delivered anonymously too. That’s always a nice touch.

Grace Under Fire

News item: Grace Park’s father, Soo Nam, helps promote his daughter in the LPGA’s “Positively Amazing” advertising campaign by donating 1,800 photos from her childhood.

Reaction: He is still hoarse from saying “cheese.”

Ready to Rumble?

If you thought the Battle at Bighorn was a big yawn, a real Battle of the Sexes is coming your way. In this one, to be taped at the Spyglass Hill Course at Pebble Beach in February and shown sometime after March, the team of David Duval and Sergio Garcia will play Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb.

The show is the brainchild of David Krieff, president of Destiny Productions, which has brought us such salacious showdowns as Jimmy Connors-Martina Navratilova on pay-for-view TV, three “Battle of the Sexes on Ice” for Fox and CBS and “Battle of the Broads” featuring Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding on Fox.

Krieff says he has a three-year commitment from a sponsor and is shopping for a network.

All four players will use the same club from the tee, but Sorenstam and Webb will enjoy a handicap of less yardage than Woods-Duval.

Krieff envisions the show sporting some sort of boxing motif, with ring announcer Michael Buffer doing the introductions and cameras following the players taking the long walk from the locker room to the ring . . . uh, tee.

“It’s going to be fun with an emphasis on entertainment,” said Krieff, who has some ideas about dressing the players. “The women will look hot and the men will look hot.”

That would be a change from the heat at Bighorn, where the players simply were hot.

Retief Signs Up

It didn’t take long for Retief Goosen to do an about-face. He joined the PGA Tour this week and makes his debut as a regular tour member at the Buick Open, seven weeks after winning the U.S. Open and saying he had no plans to join the tour.

Goosen, from South Africa, paid his dues for the remainder of the year, but he has no obligations beyond that. If Goosen signs up again next year, then he must play the minimum of 15 PGA Tour events to remain a member in good standing.

By the way, now that Goosen has converted, 24 of the top 30 players in the world golf rankings are PGA Tour members. The exceptions: Colin Montgomerie, Darren Clarke, Lee Westwood, Thomas Bjorn, Padraig Harrington and Michael Campbell.

You Snooze, You Lose

News item: Caddie Myles Byrne is fired by Ian Woosnam for oversleeping and being an hour late to the tee at the Scandinavian Masters, two weeks after he is blamed for Woosnam’s two-stoke penalty at the British Open for having too many clubs in his bag.

Reaction: Byrne was counting sheep and got stuck on 15.

Does the FCC Know?

News item: Phil Mickelson is heckled (“You can’t compare with Tiger”) by a spectator at the International who turns out to be taking part in a radio station’s publicity stunt.

Reaction: 1. He can’t (at least in majors); and 2. What a pathetic idea. (Expect to see it again.)

Numbers Game

In case you are wondering how the ERC II driver is doing, 31 players used Callaway’s nonconforming driver at the Scandinavian Masters. The ERC II is approved for use on the European Tour, but not by the USGA on the PGA Tour.

‘Person Wins Open’

In one of the oddest news releases of the year, Never Compromise had this one this week after Se Ri Pak used the Vista company’s putter to win the British Open: It never referred to her by name.

Instead, Pak was called “Women’s British Open champion” in the headline, and “the champion” in the copy. Also, runner-up Mi Hyun Kim was referred to as “the professional who finished second.”

Why the mystery? Club makers don’t use players’ names unless those players are under contract and neither Pak nor Kim are paid to endorse Never Compromise.

The Tour Was Right

The PGA Tour’s victory in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week was a major decision that drew scant attention.

The background: former Senior PGA Tour player Harry Toscano sued the tour for $9 million in 1997, claiming a conspiracy by limiting fields. The ruling by the appeals court was a clear affirmation of the system.

Toscano, a club pro from Pennsylvania, wanted to enlarge the field from 78 to as many as 144 and to force the tour to provide playing opportunities for marginal players who didn’t qualify for exempt status using the lifetime earnings list and the senior tour money list.

Siding with the tour, the appeals court must have noticed that more than two dozen players have managed to earn their exempt status through their play on the senior tour, including Hugh Baiocchi, Bob Duval, John Bland, Dana Quigley, Tom Wargo, Jim Albus and Allen Doyle.

The PGA Tour won with the position that if you’re good enough, you can get in.

No Cons About Pros

There have been only four four-time All-American golfers--Mickelson, Duval, Gary Hallberg and Bryce Molder--and now Molder says he will skip the U.S. Amateur and turn pro at the Reno-Tahoe Open in two weeks.

Molder, 22, from Georgia Tech, is playing his last event as an amateur this week at the Walker Cup at Sea Island, Ga.

Birdies, Bogeys, Pars

Kermit Alexander, Randy Stoklos, Andy Carey and Leroy Irvin are expected to play in the Young Life celebrity tournament Aug. 20 at Rolling Hills Country Club in Rancho Palos Verdes. Young Life is a national Christian organization. Details: (760) 632-7770.

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Kevin Na of Diamond Bar plans to skip his senior year of high school and try PGA Tour qualifying school. Na, 17, is Golfweek’s No. 2-ranked junior.

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Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and former San Francisco 49er Dwight Hicks are scheduled to play in the Lincoln Training Center tournament Monday at Friendly Hills Country Club in Whittier. Lincoln Training Center promotes employment and self-esteem for the disabled. Details: (626) 442-0621.