The inaugural Andersen Consulting Match Play
Championship begins with 32 matches today and 16 tomorrow as
the top 64 players in the world play for a $5M purse. Two
rounds follow on Friday, with the semis on Saturday and a
consolation match and 36-hole championship on Sunday. ESPN
and ABC will televise all five days of the event. Tickets
at the La Costa Resort are $50 daily (Riverside PRESS-
ENTERPRISE, 2/23). Yesterday, Greg Norman called the Match
Play "good for the game of golf." Norman, who floated the
idea in '94, only to be challenged by the PGA Tour, said,
"There are enough great players now on a global basis that
we do really need to get them playing against each other
more consistently" (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 2/24).
OTHER NOTES: USA TODAY's Jon Saraceno writes that
having IMG -- which represents Tiger Woods, David Duvall and
others -- develop the PGA Tour's current ranking system
similar to if General Motors "published a list of the
industry's 'Ten Best Cars,' then named Cadillac, Pontiac,
Buick 1-2-3." Saraceno: "Isn't it time the International
Federation of PGA Tours conducts an independent ranking?"
(USA TODAY, 2/24)....Tucson Open Tournament Dir Judy
McDermott, on going head-to-head against the Andersen
Consulting Match Play Championship: "How did we get such a
date? Bad luck, but we swallowed the bitter pill and it
hasn't affected us as bad as we thought it would" (HARTFORD
COURANT, 2/24)....Woods will use friend Bryon Bell as his
caddie at the Match Play Championship in order to help Bell
with his medical school expenses (AP, 2/24).
