Golf Notes February 27

PGA Tour events these days looks a little like auto races.

That was never more true than at the Match Play Championship, where the number of carts zipping around La Costa Resort at times was nearly equal to the number of fans in the gallery. And the players are starting to notice.

Bob Estes had to back off two putts in his quarterfinal match when a woman tossed a tripod in the back of her cart and sped off from the first green, oblivious to two guys playing golf just 40 yards away.

Scott McCarron was getting ready to hit his drive in the final match when a cart rumbled over a wooden bridge behind him.

``It's been really bad here,'' Paul Azinger said. ``You can't assume you can walk up and hit a shot. You have to peg your ball, step back, look around and then focus. You've got to look around to see if anyone is coming in a cart.''

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem is aware of the growing number of carts on golf courses, and was peeved to get complaints about an excessive number at La Costa.

``There are too many carts every week. I'm concerned about it,'' Finchem said. ``It seems like just about everything we do now, there are nine different reasons why we have to have this cart or that cart out there. I'm frustrated by that. I don't like it. I think we need to look at that and find a way to cut that back.''

The biggest culprit appeared to be ABC Sports, although covering match play requires equipment -- cameras, cable, etc. -- to be at all 18 holes, not just the back nine. Also, its production crew was responsible for covering 32 matches on the first day alone.

``This is a different animal,'' Jack Graham of ABC Sports said. ``We have to have the ability to move some equipment.''

Graham said ABC had the same number of carts as in previous years at La Costa, and said his crew is sensitive to movement during play.

It wasn't just ABC. Also cruising the course were TV crews for the world feed and for ESPN's SportsCenter, which broadcast a 30-minute highlight show each night. There were carts for concessions, shuttles for marshals, maintenance, scoring and television producers.

The problem was magnified because sparse galleries, making it difficult for the carts to hide behind rows of people.

Still, there seems to be a growing disregard -- either ignorance or arrogance -- for the guys swinging a club. And there were a few dangerous moments Sunday, especially when one TV cart tried to zoom under the ropes. The rope was caught in the cart and nearly lifted the steel rod out of the ground in front of some two dozen fans.

Match Play isn't the only problem. Tim Herron was frustrated after the first two rounds of the Phoenix Open, in which carts bustling around the TPC of Scottsdale were assigned to agronomy, marshals, concessions, television and tournament officials who had no business driving anywhere.

``There are a lot of carts out there, and this is probably the most wild,'' Herron said. ``It's big business. I understand it's all part of helping the tour get bigger and better, and it's part of us making more money. But it's still golf. We have to make sure we still have control of the tournament.''

MASTERS REQUEST

One reason some former Masters champions might not return to Augusta National has more to do with 300 words than 300 yards.

Golf World magazine reports this week that club chairman Hootie Johnson has written to at least three former champions -- Doug Ford, Gay Brewer and Billy Casper -- asking that they no longer play.

``Your recent record is not indicative of active participation (and) in keeping with the spirit of the intent of the founders, we believe that the 2001 Masters should be your final one as a player,'' the magazine cited the letter as saying.

Johnson said several players were asked to ``evaluate their participation.''

``We think the intent of Bob Jones and Clifford Roberts was for a golfer to play as long as he made a serious effort to participate actively in the tournament,'' Johnson said.

Casper, the last of those three to make a cut in 1987, shot 87-80 last year. Brewer withdrew after an 84, while Ford withdrew after playing the first hole -- a double bogey.

GAME, SET AND MATCH

Sergio Garcia only smiled coyly when asked whether he and Martina Hingis are more than just friends, although she is a fan of his game -- golf and tennis.

After Garcia was defeated by Scott McCarron in the third round of the Match Play Championship, he took to the tennis courts at La Costa Resort for a match against Andy Martinez, the caddie for Tom Lehman.

With a strong forehand, no waggles and Hingis watching, Garcia won.

``He's not a bad tennis player for a golfer,'' she said. ``He's come along a bit.''

Hingis, who walked two matches with the 22-year-old Spaniard, came away with a new appreciation for golf.

``I have a lot more respect for golfers after being here this week,'' she said. ``They have to make so many pressure shots. They can't wait for their opponent to make a mistake. They have to make their shots, one after another.''

DIVOTS

Ty Tryon tried to slip under the radar screen two weeks ago at the Nissan Open. According to Golfweek magazine, the 17-year-old entered a Monday qualifier under his given name -- William Tryon -- and using the address of IMG headquarters in Cleveland. He did not turn in a card, but was said to have posted a 77. ... Twelve-year-old Michelle Wie of Honolulu didn't get a sponsor's exemption to this week's LPGA Takefugi Classic, but she earned one of two spots through Monday qualifying. In high winds, Wie reached the 538-yard closing hole with a driver and a 5-wood and made birdie to shoot 83, which included 10 penalty strokes.

STAT OF THE WEEK

In the 34 days of competition at nine tournaments in three states during the West Coast Swing, it rained only once -- a steady drizzle for about two hours in the final round of the Nissan Open at Riviera.

FINAL WORD

``You get old in any other sport, you get worse. Except maybe chess. -- Paul Azinger, at 42 the oldest player to reach the semifinals of the Match Play Championship.

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