Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

Divots

Do you have to pay Tiger Woods for him to play in your tournament? Golf World magazine raised the possibility when it pointed out that Woods' most recent endorsement with Accenture means he is making $28-million in deals with tour sponsors. Accenture sponsors the Match Play Championship he won in March. This year, Woods played in all three Buick events (he has a $6-million endorsement deal with General Motors), the American Express Championship (a $6-million deal) and will play in the Funai Classic at Disney World (a $5-million deal with Disney). Other Woods events with a business relationship, according to the magazine, include the Bay Hill Invitational (run by his management company, IMG) and the Western Open, which had Golf Digest as a presenting sponsor (Woods does instructional pieces for the magazine). Woods also played the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Germany for a reported $3-million appearance fee. Meanwhile, the Deutsche Bank PGA Tour stop had the Tiger Woods Foundation as its benefiting charity. Woods played there, too.

Next year's Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills Country Club near Detroit already is sold out. Last week, a drawing was held for single-day tickets to the event. More than 102,000 ticket requests were submitted, but the gallery will be limited to 38,000 spectators per day.

It wasn't the PGA Tour, but a win is a win. John Daly's victory at the Korean Open on Sunday was his first since the 2001 BMW International Open in Germany on the European tour.

Hale Irwin won the Turtle Bay Championship on the Champions Tour for the fourth straight year.

Stuart Appleby's victory in Las Vegas moved him to 15th in the World Ranking and up 17 spots to 10th on the PGA Tour money list, assuring him a spot in the Tour Championship.

While struggling to break 80 playing a Champions Tour event, three-time major winner Jan Stephenson was having to apologize for her comments in Golf Magazine, in which she claimed Asians were "killing" the LPGA Tour and their spots, and those of other foreign players, should be limited.

Sweden's Sophie Gustafson saw her victory at the Samsung Championship marred by two possible rules violations that were not assessed and later had to deal with the insinuation that she got preferential treatment because she is dating LPGA Tour commissioner Ty Votaw.

"This is probably going to get me in trouble, but the Asians are killing our tour. Absolutely killing it. Their lack of emotion, their refusal to speak English when they can speak English. They rarely speak. We have two-day pro-ams where people are paying a lot of money to play with us, and they say hello and goodbye." - JAN STEPHENSON

In the November issue of Golf Magazine. She later apologized for her comments.

Jerry Kelly tied the PGA Tour record by making eight consecutive birdies during the third round of the Las Vegas Invitational. He became just the sixth player in tour history to do so.