Golf Notes December 4th

The Masters was impressive, and so was Tiger Woods' victory in the U.S. Open. He also added another World Golf Championship to his collection of titles.

But his best golf of the year? That came after the season ended.

The PGA Grand Slam of Golf was merely a 36-hole exhibition in the middle of silly season. Still, Woods was never more dominant than he was over two rounds at Poipu Bay last week against PGA champion Rich Beem, Justin Leonard and Davis Love III.

``We could have played a scramble and had a hard time beating him,'' Beem said Tuesday.

The final numbers: Woods shot 66-61 and finished 14 strokes ahead of Leonard. Woods needed four rounds to put 15 strokes between him and the field in the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

``Obviously, the U.S. Open was different,'' Beem said. ``That's the greatest players in the world, and he's got to beat 156 guys. This was just three of us chumps. Well, we're not chumps, but we all looked like it compared to him.''

Good thing it wasn't match play.

Woods would have beaten Leonard, 8 and 6. The margin would have been 9 and 8 against Love and Beem.

And the most staggering statistic of all: Had Woods played a best-ball match against all three of them, he still would have won 1-up.

``You can fire off all the numbers you want, but numbers don't do what he did any justice,'' Beem said. ``He didn't get everything out of his first round and shot 66. He didn't everything out his second round, either. He didn't miss out on a 59. He missed out on a 57.''

DALY'S ANTICS: John Daly's future Down Under is in question after his latest meltdown during the Australian PGA Championship.

Miffed about a ruling on the 13th hole in the second round, Daly heaved his putter into the lake on the 18th and walked off the course without signing his scorecard. He reportedly was fined $10,000.

Tony Roosenburg, an Australian PGA promoter, said he might withdraw Daly's invitation to the Heineken Classic at Royal Melbourne in February.

``I mean, what's he going to do with himself? There's no use coming back like this, not in this mood,'' Roosenburg said. ``We'll think about it over the next couple of weeks.''

Daly was playing even though his mother had died, and Roosenburg said he was grateful to Daly for showing up. Tournament officials paired him with Greg Norman and Craig Parry.

``We promoted him as the 'Wild Thing,' and he proved to be the 'Wild Thing,''' Roosenburg said.

WHO'S NUMBER TWO?: Phil Mickelson is entrenched at No. 2 in the world ranking, but Ernie Els turned in a season that was second only to Tiger Woods'.

The Big Easy beat Woods at Doral and won the Dubai Desert Classic against a strong European Tour field. He also won the Heineken Classic in Australia and the World Match Play Championship in England, the truest test of match play.

Els ended his year by closing with a 63 for an eight-stroke victory worth $2 million at the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa.

``I've made peace with the fact that Tiger is out there for now,'' Els said.

WORLD CUP CHANGE: Nick Faldo won't be playing for England in the World Cup next week in Mexico, citing an elbow injury.

Faldo tied for 11th in the Hong Kong Open last week and plans to play Thursday in the Australian Masters, his final tournament of the year.

``I am carrying a slight injury in my elbow, and while it isn't affecting my golf at the moment, I don't want to keep playing indefinitely without getting it sorted out before the start of the 2003 season,'' Faldo said.

He will be replaced in the World Cup by 25-year-old Paul Casey, who along with 22-year-old Justin Rose will give England one of the youngest teams.

Faldo's only victory in the last five years came at the 1998 World Cup with David Carter.

MICKELSON MODIFICATIONS: The putter Phil Mickelson began using late in the season has been outlawed by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club because it is not plain in shape.

That's putting it mildly.

The putter -- a Futura designed by Scotty Cameron -- looks more like a branding iron. It has a T-bar shape, three holes behind and perpendicular to the face and a bar that bends around the back of the putter in a semicircle without connecting to the blade.

Mickelson says it allows him to get a better roll on the ball. The R&A says it is not structural in nature, and that such putters will not be allowed in the British Open or any other tournament outside the United States.

The U.S. Golf Association already has approved the Futura.

Mickelson says he plans some cosmetic changes to the putter that should be enough for the R&A to accept it.

``I wanted to do that, anyway,'' he said. ``We could change the cosmetics without it changing the effectiveness of the putter.''

DIVOTS: Karrie Webb, dropped by Titleist at the end of the year, will be playing a new golf ball for the first time in her life. Webb signed a deal with Srixon to play its ball and wear its glove. The only other golf balls she has used since she first learned to play were the Titleist DT, a Titleist balata and the Titleist Pro V1. ... So much for that axiom that you drive for show and putt for dough. Bob Heintz led the PGA Tour in putting this year and finished 192nd on the money list. ... Jack Nicklaus is getting into the magazine business. The Nicklaus Companies and Luxury Publishing plan to launch an affluent lifestyle magazine on Thursday called ``Nicklaus.'' It will be a quarterly publication about golf and the lifestyle that goes with it. ... Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon has been selected to host the 2006 Curtis Cup matches and the 2007 U.S. Mid-Amateur. It will be the first time the Curtis Cup is played in the Pacific Northwest.

STAT OF THE WEEK: John Daly, Boo Weekley and Matthew Goggin finished 1-2-3 in driving distance on the PGA Tour. None finished higher than 112th on the money list.

FINAL WORD: ``A Buick.'' -- Phil Mickelson, asked what he would get Tiger Woods for Christmas.

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