USGA Keeps Things Public With Open Venues

Sometime today, the U.S. Golf Assn. will name Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y., as the site of the 2009 U.S. Open. What does that mean for Riviera Country Club?

“We hope they consider inviting us another year,” USGA President David Fay said.

A lot can happen, presumably, between now and 2009, with the exception of Riviera Country Club hosting the U.S. Open.

When the USGA awarded the 2008 Open to Torrey Pines at La Jolla--and a Southern California rival--and then says today it’s going back to Bethpage Black in 2009, it all but ended Riviera’s chances for an Open, perhaps for a very long time.

“I’ll tell you where we’re at,” said Michael Yamaki, chief corporate officer at Riviera. “We’re at a standstill, honestly. As far as I’m concerned, we’re just pushing ahead, making the course the best it can be. If it happens, it happens, [but] I can’t say it’s not a disappointment.”

The South Course at Torrey Pines, which was renovated by Rees Jones in time for this year’s Buick Invitational, is a public course, a style that seems to be in vogue at the present time, under the watch of Fay.

It was Fay who embraced Bethpage Black, another public course, and the site of this year’s Open. Yamaki believes Fay wants his legacy to be highlighted by bringing the Open to public venues, such as Torrey Pines.

“It’s David’s thing, the public course thing, it’s his direction, the way they want to go,” Yamaki said. “Whatever the politics are there, that’s all. This wave of David, wanting to go to public courses, I can’t fight that.”

Fay said choosing Torrey Pines over Riviera was a tough decision.

“We certainly understand that Riviera would feel badly about it,” Fay said. “We’re not turning our back on holding the U.S. Open at private clubs. That’s not our mission. But on the heels of a very successful Open at Bethpage, it was an attractive opportunity.”

Yamaki says he has been told informally that one of the drawbacks to Riviera is that Los Angeles has an image problem.

“There’s a thing with L.A., that L.A. is too laid back, that we couldn’t go nuts,” he said.

Until local golf fans shed their laid-back image or 2010, whichever comes first, Yamaki must wait.

“We’ll be there, just in case something happens, if someone falls out.”

It could happen, it just never has.

Tiger Update

Tiger Woods confirmed he had a fever of 102 degrees on Sunday at the Ryder Cup and said he found it funny that people questioned his passion for the event simply because he wore a different shirt than the other U.S. players.

“I got a kick out of people saying that I wasn’t patriotic ... because I didn’t wear the team uniform,” Woods said in a conference call with writers for his Target World Challenge in December. “The turtleneck was part of the team uniform, but I wore it because I was sick all week. I started to feel sick on Friday, Saturday I wasn’t feeling too good and Sunday I definitely wasn’t feeling good. I did it to stay warm. A bunch of [players] were out there in short sleeves and I was out there in a turtleneck. I thought that was comical.”

Woods also reiterated his stance on women becoming members at Augusta National Golf Club. He says he doesn’t always agree with the position of the club members, who host the Masters, but that the issue is out of his hands.

“Augusta National has always been slow to change and they have done things at their own pace, they are a private club, and they have that right. I don’t always agree with their policies, I have to say that for sure, but there is not a whole lot that I can do about it. They have their own membership, they have their own policies and they make their own rules.

“Basically, Hootie [Johnson] runs the show there, it’s his tournament and he does whatever he wants to do.”

It’s Tiger Time

For $6 million over the next three years, Woods is getting paid to know what time it is. He signed an endorsement deal with TAG Heuer, the luxury Swiss watchmaker that churns out timepieces that run as high as $5,550, thus proving that time is indeed money.

It’s Tiger Money

According to Burns Sports & Celebrities, which puts together athletes and advertisers, Woods will make $62 million in 2002 because of endorsements.

Business News

It was a very good weekend for Callaway Golf because of victories by Annika Sorenstam and Charles Howell III, who used the new Great Big Bertha II driver. And Callaway had good golf ball news too. Sorenstam and Howell used the HX Red ball and Dunhill Links winner Padraig Harrington used the CTU 30 in his European Tour victory at Carnoustie.

Some statistics on Sorenstam: At the Samsung World Championships in Vallejo, Calif., she exceeded her year-to-date driving average by more than 20 yards (284.5 yards to 264.4 yards). She is 141 under par in her nine tournament victories this year. She also won the ANZ Australian Masters in February and the Compaq Open in Sweden in August, two victories the LPGA doesn’t recognize.

But if you do count them, Sorenstam has won 11 of the 20 tournaments she has entered in 2002.

More Business News

It was also a breakthrough week for TaylorMade-Adidas Golf, which lured Sergio Garcia from Titleist and signed him to an exclusive deal.

Not only is Garcia dropping Titleist’s ball for the TaylorMade-Adidas Maxfli brand, he’s going to continue with Adidas footwear and apparel, use a TaylorMade logo bag and play a complete line of TaylorMade equipment.

Jacket for Sale

Gary Player is using Christie’s auction house to sell his golf memorabilia, including his Masters jacket, which he mistakenly took from the course in 1961 and has had ever since. The collection, appraised at $5 million, must be kept together as a condition of the sale. Most of the proceeds are expected to go to Player’s charitable interests and for his children.

Birdies, Bogeys, Pars

The Fourth Jim Murray Memorial tournament will be played Monday at Lakeside Golf Club in Toluca Lake. The event benefits the Murray Foundation, which awards scholarships to journalism students. Details: (310) 476-8948.

Prize money for the 2003 Kraft Nabisco Championship is being increased $100,000 to $1.6 million. The tournament is scheduled for March 27-30 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. Two other of the LPGA’s majors, the McDonald’s LPGA Championship and the Weetabix Women’s British Open, also raised their purses $100,000 to $1.6 million.