Golf Notes July 3

The PGA Tour has set early September as the target date for having all its title sponsors in place for the next television contract that runs through 2006. What remains unclear is whether it will have to find a replacement sponsor for Hilton Head.

WorldCom signed a four-year extension in April, but the telecommunications company is under an SEC investigation involving nearly $4 billion in disguised expenses. On Monday, WorldCom said it had defaulted on $4.25 billion in bank loans.

``We hear on the news what their financial conditions is, but we're not sure what they'll do down the road,'' said Ed Moorhouse, co-chief operating officer for the tour.

``In the event WorldCom doesn't go forward, we would attempt to secure a new title sponsor,'' he said. ``It's a pretty attractive tournament, with good TV ratings and a good field. We're relatively optimistic we could replace them, but we have not been told to.''

Moorhouse said the four-year deal had no contingencies, meaning the tour could hold WorldCom to the contract if a replacement isn't found.

It's a similar situation to what New Orleans faced in 1998, when Entergy Corp. signed on as title sponsor, then asked out of the contract when the company went through a change in leadership. Tournament officials signed up Compaq as the title sponsor a month later.

MINOR LEAGUES

PGA Tour players are their own bosses, so Notah Begay had to play the part of general manager while struggling to return from back injuries.

He sent himself to the minors during the U.S. Open.

``I didn't have a manager to send me to Double-A to see some slower pitches,'' he said. players were taking on Bethpage Black. It was a confidence builder for Begay,

He finished third in Memphis, and now has six consecutive rounds in the 60sstandpoint,'' he said.

BEST MAN

Tiger Woods passed up a fishing trip to Alaska with Mark O'Meara and John Cook last week to handle a more important matter -- serving as best man at the wedding of Jerry Chang, his childhood friend and former teammate at ``Even though this is the first time I have been a best man, how hard can it

Three years ago, he won the Dominion Open on the Buy.com Tour by makingeagle from the 18th fairway to beat Matt Goggin and Dick Mast by one shot.

ARNIE'S ASSESSMENT:

The King is not quite ready to anoint Tiger Woods as the greatest player ever.

While Arnold Palmer is awed by the eight majors Woods has won in his first six years, he noted Jack Nicklaus still owns the record of 18 professional majors.

look at it in a few more years and see how he handles it before we make that final determination.

``If you look at Nicklaus, that's a pretty tough record to beat,'' he said.

Woods has won his eight majors in 22 attempts. Nicklaus had seven majors atthat point.

AUGUSTA DONATIONS

Augusta National announced donations of $3.3 million to charity this year, including $1 million for The First Tee program and $1.25 million for local programs distributed through the CSRA Community Foundation in Augusta.ugusta, which helps golf programs in the community.

Augusta National previously gave $500,000 to the Tiger Woods Foundation and $100,000 to the Sept. 11 Fund.

Since going public with its donations in 1998, the club has given $15.5million to charities. Mickelson, with nine. ... The U.S. Senior Open will move from Plainfield (N.J.)Country Club to NCR Country Club in Kettering, Ohio, for 2005.

STAT OF THE WEEK

Coming into the year, Len Mattiace had played 216 times on the PGA Tour and earned $2.8 million. In 17 events this year, he has earned$1.9 million.

FINAL WORD

``If you're not a superstar before you walk on the senior tour, you'll never be a superstar.'' -- Bruce Fleisher.

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