Tiger makes his day - and vice versa

Tiger Woods was beaming after his practice round today for the NEC Invitational -- not because he's No. 1 in the world or because he's two weeks removed from winning his second major championship.

But because of a 10-year-old boy with leukemia.

Dan Herchline walked nine holes at Firestone Country Club with Woods, helping him with club selection and taking a few putts on the green.

"He had a ball out there," Woods said. "To share a moment like that with him all the way around, to have him smiling the entire time ... it was really neat to see."

Woods was contacted about the boy by Lee Rinker and through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and "I was more than happy to oblige."

"It was a really neat experience for him and all of us," Woods said. "He's so positive, it's scary. You get a nice perspective on life."

FRENCH SPLIT: The caddie who refused to talk Jean Van de Velde out of hitting a 2-iron on the 72nd hole of the British Open -- a shot that ultimately led to a spectacular collapse -- is out of a job.

Van de Velde says he wants a more experienced caddie for important tournaments on the horizon, such as the Ryder Cup Matches, and doesn't believe Christophe Angiolini fits the bill.

"This is nothing to do with the Open," Van de Velde said. "That should not come into anyone's mind. I've got some tough weeks coming up, and I need a more experienced caddie. Christophe does not speak a word of English.

"Also, he does not know the courses in American and can't offer me the advice that someone who has caddied over here can."

Van de Velde is replacing him with Graham Heindrich of Australia, who has worked for Mark McNulty and Nick Faldo.

"He knows the courses and will be able to tell me where to go and where not to go," Van de Velde said.

He might have even talked him out of a 2-iron with a three-stroke lead on the final hole at Carnoustie.

WORLD CUP OUT?: One tournament was ominously missing when the PGA Tour released the 2000 schedule -- the World Cup of Golf, which was supposed to be the fourth $5 million World Golf Championship event starting next year.

"Whether it actually should be positioned as part of a World Golf Championship event, I'm not sure at this point," commissioner Tim Finchem said. "It kind of depends on where we come out with the planning in the event."

The format and the criteria had never been finalized, and Finchem said that is still being worked out. He also isn't sure how this will affect the World Cup of Golf, which has been played since 1953.

"As far as the World Golf Championships go, we are very comfortable with the sequence we now have, and we see no reason to extend the number beyond those," Finchem said. "The World Cup would be an exception to that, and we could go either way later in the year."

SHARK'S SHOULDER: The NEC Invitational is only the 12th PGA Tour event this year for Greg Norman. It also could be his last.

Norman is 63rd on the money list, so he wouldn't qualify for the Tour Championship, and he has said he will not go to Spain for the season-ending American Express Championship. But PGA Tour members must play 15 events to keep full membership privileges.

The only exception would be if Norman were granted a medical exemption.

Coming off surgery on his left shoulder, Norman doesn't like to play too many events in a row. He didn't play at all between the U.S. Open and the British Open, and Carnoustie and the PGA Championship.

"I did send letters to the PGA Tour at the start of the year, and my doctors sent letters to the PGA Tour at the start of the year saying that I wasn't going to play a full schedule because we didn't know what the reaction of my should would be," Norman said.

Norman is going to see Dr. Richard Hawkins, who operated on his shoulder April 22, 1998, in two weeks for an evaluation.

"If he gives me a clean bill of health, I might just pop in a couple more and go play," Norman said.

Commissioner Tim Finchem said Norman's request for a medical exemption would be handled by Henry Hughes, senior vice president of tournament business affairs.

"We'll handle Greg like any other player," Finchem said. "It's in our interests to have him play."

If the medical exemption is denied?

"If I couldn't play the number of tournaments that I would like to play here in the United States, then I'll obviously look elsewhere," Norman said. "I wouldn't like to see it where I went to play my 'x' number of exemptions, and I wanted to play in one later on in the year and they said, 'Sorry, you couldn't play.'

"That might be a little embarrassing for all of us."

NO FINE: Earlier this month in the "Showdown at Sherwood," PGA Tour officials ordered the caddies for Tiger Woods and David Duval to change from shorts into long pants. Mitch Knox complied, but Woods and his caddie, Steve Williams, held their ground.

Tour official Vaughn Moise suggested that Williams would face disciplinary action, but that hasn't been the case yet -- at the Sprint International, or this week for the NEC Invitational.

Asked today if Williams had been fined, Woods said, "No. It was just handled improperly."

AP