GOLF DEALS AND $$: MASTERCARD CLOSE TO RYDER CUP DEAL?

          The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Langdon Brockinton reports
     that MasterCard Int'l is "close to a deal" with NBC to
     replace the USPS as a sponsor for the net's '99 Ryder Cup
     broadcast.  The deal would give MasterCard category
     exclusivity as well as the option to renew for the 2001
     event.  The USPS' move to end its Ryder Cup sponsorship was
     "not based on any displeasure with the event," but it
     "apparently ... is no longer allowed to accept
     'hospitality'" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/5 issue)....While
     golf club sales are "expected to fall at least another" 6%
     this year after "dropping" 7% in '98, Phoenix-based Karsten
     Manufacturing, maker of Ping clubs, is "apparently hitting
     out of" the "sand trap" in which the industry is "mired." 
     Karsten President John Solheim: "Last year we were up double
     digits in volume.  This year we'll be up close to double
     digits" (DETROIT NEWS, 7/4)....Four-time NCAA All-American
     golfer Joel Kribel has inked a staff contract with Nike
     through the 2002 season to wear its golf gloves and footwear
     (Nike)....Dallas-based Sport Supply Group "filed a lawsuit"
     against NY-based MacMark Corp. in Dallas federal court to
     "maintain the right to produce sports equipment" under the
     MacGregor name (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 7/6)....ESPN's Dick
     Schaap, on IMG's Tiger Woods-David Duval match: "Isn't it
     interesting that Arnold Palmer made IMG, made Mark
     McCormack.  Now Mark McCormack is trying to create Tiger
     Woods."  ESPN's Mike Lupica: "They want very much for this
     to happen.  They very much want Woods-Duval to be Palmer-
     Nicklaus, but as I've said here before, that happens on
     Sunday afternoons at majors, not in a made-for-TV shlock
     event" ("Sports Reporters," ESPN, 7/5).