Three for the Show in Charlotte

By Thomas Bonk

May 5, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

It’s back to work for Tiger Woods, almost a month after winning the Masters, and he’s going to have a lot of company this week at the Wachovia Championship.

Woods, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson headline a field at Charlotte, N.C., that includes nine of the top 11 players, everybody except Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.

Singh, Woods and Mickelson arrive at Quail Hollow with a lot at stake.

Singh leads the money list, Mickelson is only $27,000 behind and Woods is third. Mickelson leads the scoring average, with Woods third and Singh fourth.

They’re still looking for a fourth, but three players are already locked up to play in the Skins Game. The list is headed, not surprisingly, by Masters winner Woods. Defending champion Fred Couples and Fred Funk, who won the Players Championship, are the others.

Bob Harig, golf writer for the St. Petersburg Times, and his wife, Jackie, are the new parents of Jack Nicholas Harig. The kid is already one under par.

Paula Creamer was playing her practice round Tuesday at Kingsmill when she heard a familiar voice calling. It was her caddie, Colin Cann, lying in a bunker.

“I was like, ‘What are you doing down there?’ He was like, ‘I heard my ankle crack and pop. I can’t see. I’m dizzy.’ ”

Cann slipped and fell down a slope into the bunker. Cann, who has worked before with Annika Sorenstam and Se Ri Pak, had surgery to repair the ankle.

Instead of Cann, Creamer’s boyfriend, Tarik Can, will caddie for her this week.

Said Creamer: “Something with the Can last name is a comfort with me.”

Creamer, 18, is playing her first year on the LPGA Tour after winning the qualifying tournament. She has two top-10 finishes.

The quote of the week is from outgoing LPGA Tour commissioner Ty Votaw, on his legacy: “Someone once said that my job was to make these players as arrogant and insufferable as other professional athletes because it would mean that we’ve reached their level of success. If that’s success, I don’t want it.”

From Grace Park, on the ease of the greens during her practice round: “I guess they all look easier on Tuesday than on Sundays.”

From Pak, who has struggled with her swing, her back and trying to find balance in her life: “I guess my life is more important than this strange game.”

She’s known on the Golf Channel after winning “The Big Break III -- Ladies Only” and earned a spot into the field at Kingsmill, but Danielle Amiee isn’t a worldwide name yet.

“I don’t know who she is,” Park said.

Amiee, 29, is a former Long Beach State player who worked her way though dental hygiene school. She says her goal this week is to make the cut. She is also playing the Corning Classic and a celebrity event at Lake Tahoe, and then qualifying school.

“I wanted to just come out here and just play some golf and see what happens,” she said.

Jim Thorpe donated his $247,500 winner’s check from his Champions Tour victory last week at Austin, Texas, to the Crossing Community Church in Lake Mary, Fla., where he worships.

Mark O’Meara can stop holding his breath now. O’Meara, 48, had been playing this year on a minor medical exemption after missing the last two months of last year because of a wrist injury. That meant he had eight events to make $79,396, the difference between his earnings and what would have put him in 125th place.

Last week at New Orleans was O’Meara’s eighth and final event under the exemption and he was $10,982 short. O’Meara wound up tied for 52nd but cleared his goal by $1,805 and earned a major medical exemption for the rest of the year.

This Week

PGA TOUR

Wachovia Championship

* When: Today-Sunday.

* Where: Quail Hollow Club (7,442 yards, par 72); Charlotte, N.C.

* Purse: $6 million. Winner’s share: $1.08 million.

* TV: USA (today-Friday, 4-6 p.m., delayed) and Channel 2 (Saturday-Sunday, noon-3 p.m.).

* 2004 winner: Joey Sindelar.

* Next week: Byron Nelson Championship in Irving, Texas.

LPGA TOUR

Michelob Ultra Open

* When: Today-Sunday.