He Might Be No. 2, but He Won’t Stop Trying

Byron Nelson won the Masters twice, the PGA Championship twice and the U.S. Open; he won 43 PGA Tour events, 18 of them in 1945 when he won 11 in a row. At 92, Nelson has known about winning at a high level longer than anyone in golf, which is why he thinks Tiger Woods is probably more emotionally involved in losing the No. 1 ranking than he let on when it happened Monday.

“I think it means a lot to him,” Nelson said. “I think he’s so constructed that way, in terms of his thinking and his desire. Even when he doesn’t play well, he doesn’t quit. He never throws shots away. He misses some, sure, but everybody does.”

Nelson said that Vijay Singh set his sights on replacing Woods as No. 1 and accomplished it during a period in which Woods clearly hasn’t played his best.

“Tiger has been off his game some, but I think he’s swinging better than he has in a long time. I think he’s back. One thing that’s never gone away is his putting.

“But look, a man can’t stay that high that long, five years, nobody ever has done it. Tiger’s still just a few points behind Vijay now. I think he’s handled himself well, so watch what happens in the race.”

Regardless of everything else, Woods did manage to have a good laugh anyway at the Deutsche Bank when a gossip writer for the Boston Herald wrote a 10-paragraph, copyrighted story that ran Monday and reported that Woods and his fiancee were supposedly calling it quits.

No one questioned Woods about the validity of the story, but when he was asked about it in an impromptu session after his news conference Monday, Woods doubled over in laughter.

Woods and Elin Nordegren, a 24-year-old former model from Sweden, became engaged in November.

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The PGA Tour stop in Las Vegas, which hasn’t had a title sponsor in two years, signed up one Wednesday, only a month before the event is to be played, when the tournament officially became the Michelin Championship at Las Vegas.

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The tentative 2005 PGA Tour schedule, which will be official next month, has a minor tweak of the West Coast portion, moving the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines to Jan. 20-23 -- the first tournament on the mainland after back-to-back events in Hawaii.

Riviera anchors the West Coast swing Feb. 24-27 as the final full-field event before the Accenture Match Play Championship at La Costa and the week after Pebble Beach.

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From Jack Nicklaus, asked if Woods should feel bad about not being No. 1 for the first time in five years: “There are some other people playing the game.”

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Paula Creamer and Virada Nirapathpongporn are among the 22 amateurs in the field of 199 who will compete in the LPGA sectional qualifying tournament Sept. 21-24 at the Westin Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

Creamer, 18, of Pleasanton, a member of the U.S. Curtis Cup team, and Nirapathpongporn, the 2003 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion from Duke, will try to finish in the top 30 and ties in the 72-hole tournament and advance to the LPGA final qualifying tournament in December.

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Rogie Vachon, Dick Bass, Tommy Mason, Kermit Alexander, Dwight Hicks, Randy Stoklos and Don Ford are among the celebrities expected to play in the Youth Opportunities United Celebrity tournament Friday at Los Canyons Golf Club in Simi Valley. The event benefits the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services foster children program. Details: (760) 632-7770.

The third September 11th tournament will be played today at Rio Hondo Golf Club in Downey. The event benefits the 9-11 Help America Foundation. Details: (310) 676-7746.