It’s a New World for Harding Park

You can’t see cable cars from here, but the ocean is almost close enough to reach with a driver and a wedge. And so here at Harding Park, the PGA Tour is holding a tournament in this city for the first time since 1969 -- six years before Tiger Woods was born.

Woods, who has made a fine living out of the so-called World Golf Championship tournaments, said he was looking forward to making up for lost time at Harding Park, a municipal track that was overhauled in a $16-million makeover for just this purpose -- the $7.5-million American Express Championship that starts today.

Woods is impressed by the 7,086-yard layout.

“It’s unbelievable how much they’ve changed the course,” he said. “It used to be kind of a basically clover field out here.”

Or worse. At the 1998 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club next door, Harding’s ragged fairways were used as parking lots.

The city of San Francisco came up with the money to get Harding into shape with the idea that the course would eventually pay it back to the city’s Open Space fund with greens fees, although it remains to be seen whether such a strategy will work.

In any case, the PGA Tour is back and so is Woods, along with most of the top-ranked players in this limited-field event.

Woods has won nine of the 18 WGC tournaments he has entered and made $11.677 million. If that’s all Woods had made, he’d be 45th on the PGA Tour’s all-time money list.

Although Vijay Singh holds the single-season money record with $10.9 million last year, Woods has an outside shot at regaining that mark.

Woods, who is on his way to his sixth money title, could reach $11.083 million with victories this week ($1.3 million) and at the Tour Championship ($1.17 million).

Woods said he doesn’t care.

“Just like when I had the record and the money title ... it’s very misleading because obviously the purses keep going up,” he said. “I’d much rather keep having the highest total for wins every year. If I keep doing that, things will be all right.”

Woods said a rib injury that bothered him at the Presidents Cup was no longer a factor, but that there was a clear factor in being successful at Harding Park.

“Do not hit the ball in these trees,” he said. “You may not be seeing it again.”

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From Paul Azinger, 45, asked if he was ready to turn pro at 15, as Michelle Wie did Wednesday: “I didn’t even know how to shave at 15.”

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Michelle Estill’s caddie at the Office Depot was former LPGA Tour star Heather Drew, who carries a bag despite having multiple sclerosis.

“I count myself lucky,” said Drew, who said she controls her disease with diet, exercise and daily injections of the drug, Copaxone, which she promotes by wearing a logo on her cap and shirt.

Drew hopes to raise awareness of MS and its treatment. She played the LPGA Tour for 16 years, until 1999, three years after her diagnosis.

“Being afraid is probably the biggest thing you deal with. I had no idea what was going to happen to me,” she said.

The form of MS that Drew has causes numbness on one side of her body and weakness on the other.

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With five more PGA Tour tournaments this year, 66 players have passed $1 million in prize money, which means last year’s record of 77 probably will be broken.

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How to win a tournament: Last week at Greensboro, K.J. Choi led in driving accuracy (83.9%) and in putting (1.618).

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Ernie Els, who has been out since he tore a knee ligament in July, is pointing toward a comeback at the Qatar Masters, Jan. 26-29, and the Dubai Classic, Feb. 2-5 -- both European Tour events. Els is the defending champion in both and they’re two of the three European Tour events he won before May.

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Then there is the surprising renaissance of Colin Montgomerie, who won the Dunhill Links Championship last weekend at St. Andrews, the same place where he was a stunning runner-up to Woods at the British Open.

Montgomerie, 42, who began the year ranked 81st, is now 16th and what’s even more surprising, he’s second on the European Tour’s Order of Merit, or money list, passing Retief Goosen and trailing Michael Campbell by only about $90,000.

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Tickets to the Skins Game at Trilogy at La Quinta on Nov. 26-27 can be purchased by calling 1-866-SKINTIX. Woods, Fred Funk, Annika Sorenstam and defending champion Fred Couples will compete.