Big Bucks, Big News Follow Woods

If there is anyone who still has trouble following the tracks Tiger Woods is making in his first full year on the PGA Tour, here is a hint: Follow the money.

Of course, this isn’t exactly news, is it? Woods is the leading money winner on the PGA Tour ($1.36 million), but that’s pocket change for this globe-trotting, golf-playing, combination

multinational corporation and gross national product in spikes.

If the numbers are true, they are staggering. Counting the $40 million from Nike, the $20 million from Titleist, the $13 million from American Express (originally reported at $30 million) and the $7 million from Rolex, Woods tops out right now at $80 million in endorsements. And it’s not even June.

On Monday, he started earning the first third of an estimated $1.8-million fee that a billionaire lumber tycoon is paying him to play in a yearly charity pro-am at a club outside Pittsburgh.

And since we’re talking appearance fees, you have to add the $480,000 Woods made when he played in a tournament in Thailand in February.

However, Woods is not merely about money, even if he collects huge piles of it. Whatever Woods does is news. The attention he gets is sort of overpowering. Woods estimates that he signs five autographs every time he stops at the service station to pump gas.

And on the golf course, every move he makes comes under heavy scrutiny. Last week at the MasterCard Colonial, Woods got his wrist slapped a little by Brad Faxon, who said Woods needs to cut out the habit of grading his performances.

Faxon hinted that Woods’ popularity would dip in the locker room if he didn’t. And who said golfers can’t be petty? The problem was that Woods had won the week before at the GTE Byron Nelson even though he said he didn’t have his “A game.”

Now, pro golfers don’t really like to hear they were beaten by somebody who didn’t have to play that well to do it. Woods said he is through with the grade thing, but he said he had a good reason for the grading in the first place.

“I have to be honest,” he said. “I have to tell the truth. You guys [reporters] ask me a question and I’ll tell you straight up.”

Paul Goydos said the issue is pointless.

“That’s reality,” he said. “You have to learn to deal with reality. I think Tiger can say whatever he wants. He may be the most famous guy in the U.S. right now. Maybe in the world. Who knows?

“Of course, you’re talking to a guy who has been in contention twice in his whole life, so what do I know?”

DALY ON COURSE

He’s back. That would be John Daly, this time the sober version, who showed up at this week’s Memorial tournament in Dublin, Ohio, vowing to follow his after-care program to the letter.

Daly said he has been sober for two months and that he’s taking it one day at a time after completing an eight-week treatment session at the Betty Ford Clinic.

“I was around alcohol my whole life,” Daly said. “It’s not the easiest thing to do. I started drinking four years after I started playing golf. And I started playing golf when I was 4. So that’s kind of tough.”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported the tab for Daly’s stay at the Betty Ford was picked up by Joe Hardy, a 74-year-old Pittsburgh lumber tycoon who had Daly, Woods and 31 other pros on Monday at a pro-am in Farmington, Pa. Amateurs paid $10,000 for the privilege of playing.

As for a potential rivalry with Woods, Daly said he is looking forward to one.

“He’s 21, I’m 31, but I can learn from him,” Daly said. “He’s just phenomenal. Am I going to give him any advice? I’m going to get advice from him.”

JAY HEBERT, 1923-1997

Jay Hebert, the 1960 PGA champion who died Sunday in Houston at 74, may best be remembered for something over which he had no control--his golf-playing brother, Lionel. But that’s only part of the story.

Jay won the PGA Championship at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, three years after brother Lionel did it in 1957 at Miami Valley Country Club in Dayton, Ohio, the last year it was a match-play event. The Heberts are the only brothers to win the tournament.

Jay Hebert had a heart condition and had been hospitalized for nearly three months.

The Louisiana native was a player and teacher for 48 years and was on the Ryder Cup team in 1959 and 1961. He also was the non-playing Ryder Cup captain in 1963. Jay Hebert won five tour events in addition to the PGA.

MARCEL MARCEAU SAFE

Peter Jacobsen, a skilled mimic of golfers, was asked to imitate Woods. Jacobsen declined.

“If I could imitate Tiger Woods, I would do it every swing,” he said.

OINK

How to lose a golf tournament, by David Ogrin: Make three bogeys on the back nine on the last day, which is what he did Sunday at the MasterCard Colonial won by David Frost.

How bad was it?

“I putted like a pig,” he said.

WITHOUT THE POPCORN

Ogrin said being paired with Woods was extremely noisy, but fun. Ogrin compared the experience to being in the eye of a hurricane. It also reminded him of something else: “Like being in surround sound at the movies.”

WHAT? A NICE NICK?

Nick Faldo, who fitted Woods with the green jacket in the post-Masters ceremony, said golf is tailor-made for Woods right now.

“Tiger has got the game throttled,” Faldo told the Associated Press in London.

“The way things are going, he is doing whatever he wants to do and good luck to him,” Faldo said. “He has been built for the ‘90s.”

This is sort of the standard player view regarding Woods. But it is interesting because it presents something of a departure for Faldo, who usually is reserved when praising much of anything unless it involves something like the new shafts in his irons.

HAPPY MOTORING

The way it looks now, the Mercedes Championships is heading on down the road. The tournament, which began as the Tournament of Champions in 1953 and has been staged at La Costa since 1969, probably will disappear from La Costa in 1999 as a result of the PGA Tour’s new television deal.

The PGA Tour and the networks want to begin the 1999 golf season with successive events in Hawaii that can be broadcast in prime time. This means the Mercedes Championships would be wearing flowered shirts and practicing the hula on the islands instead of getting a mud bath at Carlsbad.

At the same time, there is a proposal to put one of three planned limited-field, World Tour-like events at La Costa.

LPGA: COLD, HARD CASH

When Rosie Jones made a 40-foot putt to win the LPGA Corning Classic on the first playoff hole, it obviously meant a lot to her. Not only was that putt worth $97,500, it moved her over $3 million in career earnings.

Jones had the obvious reaction when her golf ball disappeared into the cup.

“It was just too cool,” she said.

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It also was a big weekend for Annika Sorenstam. Although the $220,000 she won at the JCPenney-LPGA Skins Game is not counted as official money, it still counts at the bank. Sorenstam is at $826,079 and counting this year.

QUEEN SHOVING OFF

Fred Couples, Mark O’Meara, Craig Stadler and Scott Simpson made their pro golf debuts in it, but the $85,000 Queen Mary Open is soon to be extinct.

No title sponsor and a lack of interest from Long Beach and Los Angeles County means the 26th tournament that ends today at Lakewood Country Club will be the last one, tournament chairman Doug Ives said.

The event was first staged in Long Beach in 1972 but moved to Lakewood 12 years ago. To save expenses, the Queen Mary Open was cut back from 72 to 54 holes.

“We’ve cut to the bone and it still costs me $10,000, so it’s time to quit,” Ives said.

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

The Palmdale Auto Center and the High Desert Medical Center are helping sponsor a hole-in-one contest June 10-15 at the Palmdale Auto Center. Top prize is $1 million. The event benefits the Children’s Center of the Antelope Valley. . . . The Azusa Greens Men’s Club’s second pro-am will be held June 3 at Azusa Greens. The event benefits the Azusa Greens Junior Golf Program. Details: (818) 574-0882. . . . The third Walt Hazzard golf classic will be held June 23 at Spanish Hills in Camarillo. The event benefits the Los Angeles Sports Academy. Details: (310) 794-0536. . . . Chad Wright and Brian Hull of USC and Jason Semelsberger of UCLA made it through the first-stage qualifying for the U.S. Open and will compete in the sectionals next week--one day after returning from the NCAA tournament. . . . The Anteater golf classic will be played June 23 at Mission Viejo Country Club. The event benefits the UC Irvine athletic scholarship fund. Details: (714) 824-5550. . . . Applications for 1998 Masters practice-round tickets must be postmarked no later than July 15. Details: (706) 667-6700.