Els Might Have a Puncher’s Chance at Augusta

Remember Tiger Woods’ 11-shot victory at Bay Hill? Remember the stirring victory at the Players Championship by Davis Love III? Remember Ernie Els?

Soon after Woods finished mopping up at Bay Hill, Els took off for a vacation in the Bahamas.

The wrist he injured three weeks ago when he mis-hit a punching bag in his garage in London is coming along fine, Els reports, and he says he’s going to be back to normal by the end of the week, just in time for the Masters.

That brings up Round 2 of the Woods-Els showdown, but the first in a major, since Els replaced Phil Mickelson as No. 2 in the rankings.

“The wrist is coming along nicely, so it shouldn’t affect my buildup in any way,” Els said on his Web site.

While we’re at it, remember Mickelson? He’s playing this week at the BellSouth, his first tournament in five weeks, after waiting for wife Amy to deliver their first son. Evan Samuel Mickelson is here and his dad is back on the course.

While he was away, Mickelson slipped to No. 4 in the rankings, behind Love.

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The quote of the week is from Robert Allenby, who closed with a 65 at the Players Championship, finished early, then said he would wait to see if the wind might blow the field back toward him.

Said Allenby: “I’ll just pray for a little more wind. I’m not religious, but I might be now.”

Instead, Love blew everybody away with a 64. Allenby tied for fourth.

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Following the money is always an entertaining game, and here’s a case in point. In 1977, Rik Massengale won the Bob Hope Desert Classic and earned $40,000. In 1977, Kathy Whitworth won the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winners Circle (now the Kraft Nabisco Championship and an LPGA major) and earned $36,000.

Not much difference, right?

Patricia Meunier-Lebouc’s victory Sunday at Mission Hills was worth $240,000. Meanwhile, on the same day, Love won the Players Championship, which is not a major, and earned $1.17 million -- nearly five times more.

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As expected, Sunday’s overnight rating for ABC’s coverage of the Kraft Nabisco took a nosedive, facing stiff competition, but also in line with declining weekend ratings for every sports event other than NASCAR.

Saturday’s rating for the Kraft on ABC was 0.9. The Sunday overnight rating was 1.4, down from last year’s 2.3 when ABC had the Shell Houston Open as a lead-in. There was no Saturday broadcast of the Kraft in 2002 on ABC.

NBC’s overnight ratings for the Players Championship were down for the second year in a row. Saturday’s numbers were 3.4 compared to 4.1 in 2002; Sunday’s rating was 4.2 compared to 5.3 a year ago.

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The LPGA has signed Jim Beam as a sponsor, thus becoming the “official spirit of the LPGA.”

Note to LPGA: That slogan might need a little work.

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In case you were wondering, Woods isn’t going to change the menu for Tuesday night’s champion’s dinner at Augusta National with all the former Masters winners invited, so that means another round of Porterhouse steak and grilled chicken breasts. Woods, by the way, picks up the tab for the dinner, so that will cost him about $15,000.

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Woods will be on hand April 16, three days after the end of the Masters, for the groundbreaking ceremony for the Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anaheim. The $25-million facility will feature a 35,000-square-foot education center and a 23-acre golf facility. Woods kicked off the fund-raising by pledging $5 million.

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Sports books in Las Vegas have opened wagering on whether Annika Sorenstam will shoot higher or lower than 76.5 in the first round of the Colonial next month.

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Winners: Scotty Cameron putters have been used by the winner in every PGA Tour event this year. Brain coach Bob Rotella, sports psychologist at the University of Virginia, had the winner (Love) and the co-runner-up (Padraig Harrington) at the Players. Michelle Wie, the 13-year-old amateur sensation from Honolulu, wore Adidas apparel, used a TaylorMade 580 driver and a Titleist Pro V1x ball when she tied for ninth at Mission Hills.