Now that Tiger Woods has
won six straight PGA Tour events, London bookmaker William Hill sees no reason
why he can't win all four major championships this year.
It has cut the odds from
200-1 to 80-1 for the feat.
"We already face a pay-out
of up to 500,000 pounds ($800,000) if he wins the Grand Slam, and the nearer
he gets to it the more our liabilities will increase," Hill's spokesman Graham
Sharpe said today.
If more money pours in,
the bookmaker might face a $1.6 million payout.
Woods is now a 5-2 favourite
to win the Masters, 3-1 favourite to win the U.S. Open, 3-1 favourite to win
the British Open and 3-1 favourite to win the PGA.
No player has won the professional
Grand Slam. Bobby Jones won the British and U.S. Opens and Amateurs in 1930,
the four major championships at the time.
PRICE.COM:
Internet companies already have made their way onto players' shirts, hats and
bags. Some of them are title sponsors of tournaments or tours. Nick Price is
taking the dot-com involvement in golf one step further.
He'll be playing e-clubs.
Price has signed a deal
with Chipshot.com, an e-tailer that has developed a premium line of irons he
will play. Price developed the clubs with Tom Stites and will play with them
next week in the Nissan Open.
He will carry the Chipshot.com
brand on his bag, headcovers, and umbrella.
Price and Stites are also
developing a premium line of fairway metals. The Tour Series line can be custom-fit
to each golfer using the company's online fitting system.
"In my two decades on the
PGA Tour, I have learned a lot about what goes into a good golf club," Price
said. "I came to Chipshot.com because they have custom-built for me exactly the
set of clubs that best fits my game."
Maybe the third time will
be a charm. After winning the PGA Championship in 1994 for his third major, Price
signed with Atrigon, which folded without ever making a club. He later signed
with Goldwin, another company that went under.
LAST
CHANCE: This week
is the last chance to qualify for the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship,
the $5 million event for the top 64 players in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Since Jumbo Ozaki will
probably skip again, No. 65 will probably get in, and that is currently Bob May.
Olin Browne is at No. 64, while Bill Glasson in at No. 66.
The most intriguing player
on the bubble is Michael Campbell, the only guy to beat Tiger Woods in an official
money event since August (at European Tour's Johnnie Walker Classic in November
in Taiwan). Campbell, who leads the European Tour money list, is No. 67. Should
he move up two spots this week, and Ozaki doesn't enter, Campbell would draw
Woods in the first round.
SETTING
IT STRAIGHT: On
the PGA Tour's list of longest winning streaks in its media guide, Jack Nicklaus
is nowhere to be found among the 29 times a player has won at least three in
a row.
Oops.
The Nicklaus camp recently
called the tour to point out that the Golden Bear indeed won three in a row --
Doral, the Heritage Classic, and the Masters in 1975.
STEWART
MEMORIAL: Payne
Stewart attributed his renewed Christian faith to his children, saying it took
root when he sent them to Camp Kanakuk in his native Missouri.
Now, a Payne Stewart Memorial
complex that includes a First Tee golf facility is being developed through one
of the camp's affiliations -- Kids Across America, near Branson.
In addition to the First
Tee project, the complex will include three new buildings that will allow Kids
Across America to serve more than 10,000 inner-city children each summer.
Stewart and his business
partners, Robert Fraley and Van Arden, died in a plane crash last year.
Davis Love III has agreed
to use his design company for the First Tee, at no charge.
"When Payne was scheduled
to play in the Skins Game, we had decided to donate the winnings to the KAA Camp,"
said Tracey Stewart, Payne's widow. "So, I believe this is an appropriate tribute."
The idea for the memorial
started with Bobby Clampett, a CBS Sports analyst and tour player who sent his
own kids to Kanakuk at Stewart's suggestion. Stewart's children, Chelsea and
Aaron, still go to the camp.
"For them to go back and
see this memorial to their dad, I know will be something that will be uplifting
to them," Clampett said.
THE NICKLAUS
FILES: Jack Nicklaus
missed the cut in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, his first PGA Tour start
of 2000.
For Dave Shedloski of golf.com,
it was his third tournament watching Nicklaus in what figures to be a long year
tracking the Golden Bear.
The reason?
Shedloski is putting together
"The Nicklaus Chronicles" for the Web site, a comprehensive report of stories,
audio, and video of Nicklaus in what probably will be his last full season of
competitive golf.
SEVE
CUP: The man who
energised the Ryder Cup in Europe now has a Ryder Cup-style tournament named
in his honour.
The Seve Ballesteros Trophy,
which makes its debut April 14 and will be played every two years, is a $2.4
million event for 10-player teams that will pit Continental Europe against Britain
and Ireland.
Ballesteros will lead Europe,
while the captain of the British and Irish team will be Scotsman Colin Montgomerie.
DIVOTS:
Lost in the hoopla over Woods's victory at Pebble Beach was a visit he paid Matt
Gogel in the scoring trailer to tell the rookie he should be proud of his play.
"I thought it was Tom Scherrer, so I was ignoring him," Gogel said. "It was a
classy act, classy for him to do that." ... Jack Nicklaus has changed his mind
about playing the Nissan Open and instead will play the Senior PGA Tour event
in Tampa, Fla. With a corporate outing at Pebble on Wednesday and a commercial
shoot for Maxfli at his home in Florida on Monday, Nicklaus decided against another
West Coast trip. ... Caddie Jerry Higginbotham, fired by Mark O'Meara and Sergio Garcia last year, took a long vacation in the Caribbean and says he's taking
the rest of the year off. Would he ever consider working for O'Meara? "He's got
my number," Higgy said.
STAT
OF THE WEEK: One
sign of how much Tiger Woods has changed his game: He is tied for 40th in driving
distance at 274.4 yards. He also has hit 79.2 percent of his greens in regulation
to lead that category.
FINAL
WORD: "You saw
one of the great sportsman of all time. I had the best seat in the house." -
Former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, who was in the foursome with Tiger
Woods when he won at Pebble Beach.
