Golf

Tiger Woods ended the year at No. 1 in the world ranking for the fourth consecutive season and John Daly improved 456 spots to No. 51--one place short of earning an invitation to the Masters.

Lee Westwood, Colin Montgomerie, Hal Sutton and Tom Lehman fell out of the top 10 this year, replaced by Sergio Garcia, PGA champion David Toms, U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen and Darren Clarke.

Among those who earned invitations to the Masters was Charles Howell III. Howell, who grew up in Augusta, Ga., qualified despite not having a PGA Tour card this season. Playing on sponsors’ exemptions, he earned more than $1.5 million and moved up to No. 45 in the world.

The LPGA Tour has authorized the Women’s Senior Golf Assn. to be its official senior tour, with four events planned next season for players 44 and older. Prize money is expected to range from $300,000 to $500,000.

Under the agreement, senior tournaments might be scheduled for weeks when the LPGA is not playing, or the same week as limited-field tournaments.

Olympics

The Salt Lake City Olympics will be the most expensive Winter Games, costing nearly $2 billion, or $791,667 per athlete.

The budget for the 17-day event dwarfs what was spent in 1980 at Lake Placid, N.Y., and nearly triples the cost of the much larger 1984 Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, even in inflation-adjusted dollars.

The Salt Lake City figures are staggering even to Olympic officials who believe the 1998 Nagano Games pushed extravagance to its limit with a $1.14-billion price tag.

“It’s beyond my imagination that things could suddenly jump to the extreme costs they’re running,” said Philip Wolff, chief of staff for the Lake Placid Games. “Are we running a games of spending or of competition for the athletes?”

Eighteen cents of every dollar will come from the pockets of American taxpayers. They will pay to make the games safer and for other costs, such as additional weather forecasts.

Miscellany

Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, co-most valuable players for the World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks, were selected Sports Illustrated’s Sportsmen of the Year for 2001. The issue goes on sale Wednesday.

World Boxing Council welterweight champion Sugar Shane Mosley will fight International Boxing Federation champion Vernon Forrest on Jan. 26 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.... Joe Sisson of the United States and Winston Watt of Jamaica each won an America’s Cup two-man bobsled race at Lake Placid.