Their No. 1 Goal Is to Reach the Top

Get the cake ready and light the candles, there’s an anniversary coming up. The Official World Golf Ranking, which has been around for 19 years, will release its 1,000th edition on Monday.

Not everyone agrees with the rankings or even understands how they’re put together, but there is never disagreement about what it means to be ranked No. 1, which is where Vijay Singh is these days.

Singh’s lead over Tiger Woods is .22 and he is in his 30th week at No. 1. Woods holds the record for most weeks, 342, and Greg Norman is second with 331.

For what it’s worth, the only other players to have been ranked No. 1 are Bernhard Langer (three weeks), Seve Ballesteros (61), Nick Faldo (98), Ian Woosnam (50), Fred Couples (16), Nick Price (43), Tom Lehman (one), Ernie Els (nine) and David Duval (15).

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Jack Nicklaus isn’t playing the Senior PGA Championship at Laurel Valley Golf Club this week, but Arnold Palmer is. And the 75-year-old Palmer told reporters in Ligonier, Pa., he understood Nicklaus’ intention to stop playing tournament golf after the British Open at the age of 65, but that making a formal announcement of stepping aside is a personal decision.

“It’s different to my approach,” Palmer said. “I enjoy [golf]. I enjoy playing and I enjoy getting into the competition. Sure, it bothers me I don’t play as well as I once did, but every once in a while I hit a couple good shots and the fans have been so supportive of me that I suppose that motivates me to continue to play from time to time.”

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There are reports that the Accenture Match Play Championship will move from La Costa to Florida in 2007. According to Golf World, it’s all part of the PGA Tour’s scheduling process in regards to opening the renegotiations of its television deal, which expires at the end of 2006.

La Costa has been the site of the Match Play tournament the last four years and six times in its seven-year history, anchoring the West Coast swing. But if it gets a new address -- possibly the Innisbrook Resort in Tampa -- it would open the Florida part of the schedule.

Another tournament involved in the early negotiations is The Players Championship, which could move from March to May, before the Byron Nelson. Also, there is a chance that the PGA Tour will end its 2007 season in September with the Tour Championship to prevent its televised events from getting clobbered in the ratings by the NFL.

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The overnight Nielsen rating for the CBS telecast of Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour’s Colonial tournament in Fort Worth, where Woods did not play, was a 2.3. That’s slightly higher than the NBA pre-game show on ABC and the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Expect to see Woods next at the Memorial in a week.

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A place in the Target World Challenge pro-am and a putting lesson from Woods went for $55,000 at an auction over the weekend at Tiger Jam VIII in Las Vegas. The event raised more than $1 million for the Tiger Woods Learning Center.

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Annika Sorenstam goes back to work this week at the LPGA Corning Classic, where she is the defending champion. When she showed up last year at Corning Country Club, Sorenstam had 50 wins; now she’s got 60.

After winning four of her first five tournaments this year, Sorenstam could pass $1 million with a top-three finish at Corning, which pays $160,000 to the winner.

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When Sergio Garcia rang the opening bell Monday at the New York Stock Exchange, it was all part of the PGA Tour’s ongoing advertising campaign with Edelman, designed to increase the visibility of its players.

Others who have rung the bell during the tour’s year-old public relations campaign: Phil Mickelson after winning the Masters, and Craig Stadler (Champions Tour) and Jimmy Walker (Nationwide Tour) after receiving their player-of-the-year awards.

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This Week

PGA TOUR

FedEx St. Jude Classic

* Site: Memphis, Tenn.

* Schedule: Today-Sunday.

* Course: TPC at Southwind (7,244 yards, par 70).

* Purse: $4.9 million. Winner’s share: $882,000.

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

* Last year: David Toms successfully defended his title, returning to form following wrist surgery to beat Bob Estes by six strokes.

PGA OF AMERICA

Senior PGA Championship

* Site: Ligonier, Pa.

* Schedule: Today-Sunday.

* Course: Laurel Valley Golf Club (7,107 yards, par 72).

* Purse: TBA ($2 million in 2004). Winner’s share: TBA ($360,000 in 2004).

* Television: ESPN (Today-Friday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.) and Channel 4 (Saturday, noon-3 p.m., Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.).

* Last year: Hale Irwin won the major tournament for the fourth time, by one shot over Jay Haas at Valhalla in Louisville, Ky. Irwin won at PGA National in 1996, ’97 and ’98.

LPGA TOUR

LPGA Corning Classic

* Site: Corning, N.Y.

* Schedule: Today-Sunday.

* Course: Corning Country Club (6,062 yards, par 72).

* Purse: $1.1 million. Winner’s share: $165,000.

* Television: The Golf Channel (Today-Sunday, 1-3:30 p.m., 6:30-8:30 p.m.).

* Last year: Annika Sorenstam won the third of her eight 2004 LPGA Tour titles, beating Michelle Estill and Vicki Goetze-Ackerman by two strokes.