Major Tour Attracts Only Minor Appeal

You can say goodbye to the proposed Major Champions Tour, an idea that lasted only a couple of months, but isn’t going to make it off the drawing board in 2003 because not enough players signed up.

Fox, which would have been the proposed tour’s television partner, wanted at least 20 of the 35 eligible players to agree to give up their PGA Tour cards and imposed a deadline of late this month. It’s not going to happen, television insiders say, because too many players were wary of leaving the PGA Tour and competing against it. Players 37 to 55 who have won a major would be eligible.

Sources say Fox got the news Wednesday.

However, Fox also heard a lot more, so this doesn’t appear to be the end of the story. Even if there isn’t going to be a Major Champions Tour, don’t be surprised to see individual MCT events in 2003 that are acceptable to the PGA Tour.

It’s early in the planning stages, but there are proposals for MCT events in November and December and on certain Mondays and Tuesdays during the regular season.

“It’s not going away and it’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s going to get on the map,” according to an insider.

If this route sounds familiar, it should. The so-called World Tour that Greg Norman tried to get going only to be stopped by PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem eventually evolved into World Golf Championship events sanctioned by the tour.

The MCT would be following a similar path, but involving older players--such as Norman, Fred Couples, Nick Faldo and Nick Price--and representing an alternative to the routinely bland Senior PGA Tour or some sort of partnership.

Stay tuned. Just be aware that if there’s money to be made, it’s going to get the complete attention of the players, the PGA Tour and Fox ... and it’s probably coming off the drawing board to your television set sooner than you think.

Hootie Birdies

How often do the decision-makers at Augusta National make mistakes? They made one last week when they ruled that past Masters champions would have to play at least 15 tournaments the previous year to be eligible to play beginning in 2004--virtually assuring that Jack Nicklaus would play his last Masters next year.

At least club chairman Hootie Johnson knew he messed up because the rule was changed Wednesday to 10 tournaments, clearly to accommodate Nicklaus and avoid embarrassing the only six-time champion.

Johnson didn’t act like the same person who said that after a decision he never looked back, and that’s good.

The sight of a Nicklaus wandering off was probably worth a second look.

More Masters

He won the Masters three times and was runner-up twice, but now that he has been told he will play his last Masters next year, Gary Player doesn’t want to go out quietly.

“What they’re doing, they’re throwing away tradition,” Player said. “People are starting to get a little bit bitter. I do not ever want to be bitter in my life.”

Player turns 67 in November and will be on the wrong side of the calendar when the Masters institutes its new age policy in 2004. Past champions must be 65 or younger and meet the 10-tournament requirement. Player has no trouble making the tournament limit because he regularly schedules 20 events on the Senior PGA Tour, but there’s nothing he can do about the age limit.

He’s not very happy about it, especially because he feels he can still play.

“I’m still competitive. I could have played another two or three years. The minute I can’t play, you don’t have to send me a letter. I’m gone.”

Johnson sent letters to past champions Gay Brewer, Doug Ford and Billy Casper before the Masters this year and informed them they would not be allowed to play. Player said it was “inexcusable” to communicate by letter.

Player also called the 15-tournament limit “ridiculous,” and Johnson apparently agreed.

Since 1990, Nicklaus has played at least 11 events every year.

For the record, the U.S. Open has a 10-year limit on exemptions for past champions, the British Open established its own age limit of 65 for past champions in 1984 and there is no exemption limitation for past winners of the PGA Championship.

Also for the record, Player has made the cut four times in his last 17 Masters, but that’s not his point, he says.

“When I won the tournament, I was told I could play as long as I chose. They haven’t lived up to their word, that’s the sad thing. The British Open has been very clear--65 and that’s it. They don’t tell you one thing and do another.”

Numbers Game

Dana Quigley will set a record Friday when he plays in his 178th consecutive tournament, at the Senior PGA Tour event in Birmingham, Ala. Quigley’s streak began 244 weeks ago and includes six victories, 10 seconds, 74 top 10s, 534 rounds, 39,552 strokes and $6.7 million in earnings.

Sure, He Left the Tip

News item: Aaron Baddeley rejects reports that David Leadbetter isn’t spending enough time coaching him. He reports working all day with the famous teacher and taking only an hour break for lunch.

Reaction: Who bought?

And No Nap Time

News item: Michelle Wie, 12, the youngest player to qualify for an LPGA event, gets a sponsor’s exemption into the LPGA tournament in North Augusta, S.C., later this month.

Reaction: Yes and she’s in a foursome with the cast of “Rugrats” and the tournament will be carried live on Nickelodeon.

Who’s He Targeting?

John Prideaux, the club secretary at Muirfield, had this to say recently about the wind blowing at the British Open site: “That will

Yes, it’s unlikely any PGA Tour pro has a chance at the British Open, which by the way has been won by a U.S. player seven times in the last eight years.

Uh, He Did

News item: Nicklaus was two under on the front nine at Superstition Mountain for the Tradition and 14 over on the back.

Reaction: Who designed that course?

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This Week

PGA TOUR

Compaq Classic of New Orleans

When: Today-Sunday.

Where: English Turn Golf & Country Club (7,116 yards, par 72), New Orleans.

Purse: $4.5 million. Winner’s share: $810,000.

Television: ESPN (Today-Friday, noon-3 p.m.) and Channel 7 (Saturday, 1-3 p.m.; Sunday, noon-3 p.m.).

Last year: David Toms, a Louisiana native who played for LSU, closed with a 64 for a two-stroke victory over Phil Mickelson.

Last week: Rocco Mediate won the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic, holding off Mark Calcavecchia by three strokes.

LPGA TOUR

Chick-fil-A Charity Championship

When: Friday-Sunday.

Where: Eagle’s Landing Country Club (6,187 yards, par 72), Stockbridge, Ga.

Purse: $1.25 million. Winner’s share: $180,000.

Television: ESPN (Friday, 10 a.m.-noon; Saturday, 2-3:30 p.m.; Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m.).

Last year: Annika Sorenstam won the fifth of eight 2001 titles, beating 2000 winner Sophie Gustafson on the second hole of a playoff.

Last event: Cristie Kerr won her first tour title, beating South Korea’s Hee-Won Han by a stroke in the Longs Drugs Challenge on April 21.

SENIOR PGA TOUR

Bruno’s Memorial Classic

When: Friday-Sunday.

Where: Greystone Golf and Country Club, Founder’s Course (6,992 yards, par 72), Hoover, Ala.

Purse: $1.4 million. Winner’s share: $210,000.

Television: PAX (Friday, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.) and CNBC (Saturday-Sunday, 2:30-4:30 p.m.).

Last year: Hale Irwin shot three straight 65s to break the tournament record by six strokes.

Last week: Jim Thorpe won the Countrywide Tradition for his first senior major title, holing a five-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff with John Jacobs.