NEW NIKE NEMESIS? TEARDROP FORMS MINOR LEAGUE GOLF TOUR

          TearDrop Golf Co. has "pieced together a 75 event minor
     league golf tour in hopes of seeding its gear and brand"
     among golfers, according to Richard Wilner of the N.Y. POST. 
     In just its first year of business, the TearDrop Tour is
     offering roughly $4M in prize money and is attracting
     hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate sponsorship
     money, with deals with United Airlines and Crown Royal
     already in place.  The latter will sponsor the Tour's Crown
     Royal Open in July.  Wilner writes that TearDrop has become
     "the largest developmental golf tour and is positioned as
     sort of a Double-A minor league."  Wilner equates the Nike
     Tour as the Triple-A minor league to the PGA Tour.  TearDrop
     CEO Rudy Slucker said that while the top 15 players on its
     tour will not automatically make the PGA Tour, as Nike's top
     finishers do, he considers the Nike Tour "a rival and will
     look to grow his tour's purses to Nike Tour levels."  The
     Nike Tour has a total purse of $7.4M compared to TearDrop's
     $4M (Richard Wilner, N.Y. POST, 4/24).