His Play Has Been Effective

A new study looks into the so-called “Tiger Effect,” and the results are surprising. Gary Sailes, a sports marketing and management expert at Indiana University, found that Tiger Woods has had a dramatic effect on the culture of golf.

Besides a new emphasis on physical fitness as well as the increased financial benefits to Woods and other players and the industry as a whole, Sailes said the Tiger Effect could be credited with additional benefits.

* More golf courses are being built: Ninety percent of the nearly 500 courses built in 2003 were public; about 500 inner-city programs are in effect, compared with 85 a decade ago.

* More people are playing: More than 3 million have taken up golf since 1999; the annual increase in the number of golfers is 5%, compared with 1% before Woods turned pro; the percentage of African American golfers has doubled since he turned pro.

Sailes presented his findings at the annual convention of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport.

According to a survey of public relations and marketing executives in sports leagues and companies that was conducted by Alan Taylor Communications, Woods is the most marketable male athlete. Lance Armstrong is second on the list.

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They’re going to tee it up, way up, on Tuesday, when David Feherty, John Jacobs, Gary McCord and Fuzzy Zoeller will hit a shot from the top of the Newport Beach Marriott -- a height of 162 feet -- to the second green at neighboring Newport Beach Country Club.

The stunt is part of the Toshiba Senior Classic, and the player who gets closest to the pin earns $2,000, to be donated to the player’s charity. The other three receive $1,000 for their charities.

Said Zoeller: “I’m not Spider-Man by any means. I’m definitely going to take the elevator to the top.”

Said McCord: “We’re going to raise the roof, so to speak.”

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The overnight Nielsen rating for the last round of Doral was up 84% over a year ago, but it’s also true that the final-round rating of 5.9 was better than two of last year’s majors -- the PGA Championship (4.7) and the British Open (4.6).

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Michelle Wie update: The 15-year-old from Honolulu plays her second LPGA Tour event of the year next week in Phoenix and then plays the Kraft Nabisco Championship a week later at Rancho Mirage. Last year, Wie was fourth at Mission Hills.

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He has played in the Masters the last 13 years, but unless Colin Montgomerie moves into the top 50 in the rankings, his streak is likely to end. Montgomerie has improved his ranking from 83rd to 56th and must crack the top 50 after the Players Championship to earn a spot in the Masters.

Montgomerie’s task is more difficult because he’s not playing this week and has only the European Tour’s TCL Championship in China left on his schedule before the Players.

It is unlikely that the Masters will offer a special invitation to Montgomerie.

Montgomerie has improved his ranking after a second in Singapore, an 11th in Australia, a fifth at Riviera and a fourth at Dubai.

Trying to get into the top 50 is like trying to eat an elephant, he said: “You can eat an elephant, but you have to do it bite by bite. You can’t do it all in one go.”

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Remember Ernie Els? With most of the attention focused on Woods, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson, Els is off to another hot start and is closing in on the No. 1 ranking.

Last week, he won the European Tour event at Dubai for the third time, with an eagle on the last hole. He tied for third at the Dunhill Championship and was fifth at the Heineken Classic in Australia. On the PGA Tour, Els tied for third at the Mercedes, was second to Singh at the Sony Open in Honolulu and tied for sixth at Torrey Pines.

In his six tournaments, Els is a combined 76 under par.

Getting to Dubai was an adventure for Els, who showed up late for his flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, and discovered that his first-class seat had been given away. So Els sat in coach.

To make it up to him, the airline offered him the first-class meal and Els said all right, but only if everyone on his row got the same food.

“I struck up a bit of a friendship with a few of the people and had a couple of glasses of wine, then fell asleep,” he said. “It was just like old times.”

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The third annual United Warrior Foundation tournament will be played at 11:30 a.m. today at Brookside in Pasadena. The event benefits the surviving spouses and children of soldiers killed in action serving in Special Operations Forces, including the Navy SEALs, the Army Special Forces, Air Force Special Operations units and Recon Marines units.