Golf Notes April 17

As Tiger Woods was coasting to his third victory in the Masters, a 10-day charity auction ended on eBay for a chance to play golf with the world's No. 1 player.

The highest of 13 bids was $425,000.

``We wanted to extend the bidding for an extra day, but that wouldn't be fair to the people who submitted earlier bids,'' said Mark Steinberg, Woods' agent at IMG.

The name of the winning bidder was not released. The round will be played sometime this fall at Isleworth Country Club, Woods' home course near Orlando, Fla.

A 2001 Masters flag that was signed by Woods went for $5,100 after 33 bids.

The auction raised money for the Tiger Woods Foundation, which serves community-based young programs.

Two years ago, four men combined to pay $204,000 for a round with Woods through an auction on Ultimatebid.com. The most anyone paid to play golf with Woods was $2.1 million last year during an auction that raised money for localcharities in Limerick, Ireland.

DORAL'S SPONSOR

The PGA Tour, already trying to line up corporate sponsors for as many as 10 tournaments, got a jolt when Genuity Inc. decided not to renew its sponsorship of Doral for the next four-year television contract.

That marks the second time in three years that the South Florida Golf Foundation, which runs the tournament, is looking for a new sponsor. Genuity took over for Ryder in 2000.

Still, the tour was optimistic it could find a replacement.

Doral is the start of the Florida Swing, the unofficial first stop on the road to the Masters. Its $4.7 million purse is the richest among regular PGA Tour events, and its field boasted Tiger Woods and eight of the top 10 players in the world ranking.

``The tour is currently is discussion with a number of companies who find the event's combination of date and venue to present a very appealingsponsorship opportunity,'' spokesman Bob Combs said.

PHIL'S WEEK

Phil Mickelson is now 0-for-39 in the majors, but last week's showing in the Masters was reason to believe his time is coming soon.

He has finished in the top 10 in five of the last six majors, and in four of the last six majors has been within four shots of the leader going into the final round.

Mickelson closed with a 71 to finish third, four strokes behind Tiger Woods. But he didn't have any three-putts at Augusta, and played 72 holes with nothing worse than a bogey.

``I obviously would like to have played better, but I saw a lot of progress in my game,'' Mickelson said. ``More consistency, no big numbers, nothinghigher than a bogey, and I was really pleased with that.''

BUBBA TURNS PRO

U.S. Amateur champion Bubba Dickerson turned professional on Tuesday, passing up exemptions to play in the U.S. Open and British Open.

Dickerson said he will make his pro debut at the Greater Greensboro Classic in two weeks.

His amateur career ended in style, playing the first two rounds of the Masters with Tiger Woods. Dickerson had rounds of 79-71 and missed the cut by three strokes. The low amateur at Augusta was British Amateur champion Michael Hoey (148).

``I can't think of a better way to wrap up my amateur career than playing in the Masters,'' Dickerson said. ``It also gives me great motivation to be invited back someday as a member of the PGA Tour.''

Dickerson earlier played the Bay Hill Invitational and made the cut,although he closed with an 80 to finish last at 11-over 299.

NO FOOT JOY

Vijay Singh plans to take the next three weeks off because of plantar fasciitis, the same foot injury that has bothered Mark Calcavecchia.

Singh began wearing a boot cast to bed last month to keep his calf and heel flexible.

While it causes discomfort when he walks, Singh managed to win the Houston Open two weeks ago and got within two strokes of Tiger Woods in the final round of the Masters until he took a quadruple-bogey 9 on No. 15.

Singh had planned to play in a Skins event in India this week. Thetournament has been rescheduled.

TAKING HIS TIME

At a time when players are leaving college early (Charles Howell) or not even going to college at all (Ty Tryon), Jamie Elson of Augusta State is in no rush to turn pro. In fact, he is redshirting this year.

Elson, a 20-year-old from England who was the NCAA runner-up last year, decided to take a one-year break to work on his game.

``I just wanted to get everything in order so when I do turn pro, I'm not having any qualms about what parts of my game aren't up to scratch,'' he said.

Even more amazing is that Elson made his decision after the Walker Cup last August, where he was 2-0-1 in helping Britain and Ireland to its most lopsided victory ever over the United States.

He says he didn't miss golf until he played the Mexican Amateur a few months ago.

``I got the golf bug again, but then I had to go back to school,'' he said.

Elson got a break last week and watched the Masters while working for the photographers at The Augusta Chronicle.

``It's been great,'' he said. ``They're paying me to watch golf.''

DIVOTS

Traffic at Masters.org, the official Web site of the Masters, increased 37 percent from last year. The tournament said nearly 1.5 million users logged on during the week, and stayed on the site for an average of 1 hour, 54 minutes. Peak traffic was 3 p.m. Friday, when 85,300 real-time leaderboards were in use. ... John Daly lived up to his reputation as the quickest player in golf. During the third round of the Masters, it took him 16 seconds from the time he stuck a tee in the ground to hit his shot on the par-312th hole.

STAT OF THE WEEK

Tiger Woods is 52-under par at the Masters since turning pro and has a scoring average of 69.83. The only other major where he has alower scoring average is the PGA Championship (69.55).

FINAL WORD

``I don't really have a choice -- not that it would matter.'' -- Phil Mickelson, asked whether he would have to play aggressively because he was four strokes behind going into the final round at the Masters.

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