"This is as major a golf tournament as it gets," Montgomerie said. "I don't know who classifies these things, but if there were five majors this would be the fifth. There are certain shots that have to be hit on this course, and that plays into my hands."A suggestion from John Daly for Woods and Fuzzy Zoeller, whose crass remarks about the Masters champion created a racial controversy that is still rumbling, to play a practice round at Augusta got a cautious welcome from Woods."It would be more of a public relations thing," Woods said "I will be getting ready for a major. Its only drawback is that the first "official" major of the year follows in a fortnight.That is not a problem for Colin Montgomerie, who has a better record at the TPC at Sawgrass than at Augusta National. I think you can only judge how good a player he is by his performances in the big championships like the majors and this tournament."The 25th Players tournament has a first prize of $720,000 (pounds 445,000) and one of the best fields of the year.

I am right up there and there are a lot of other players right up there, but his record is awfully good. ERNIE ELS has the chance to replace Tiger Woods as the world No 1 by winning his second tournament in a week at the US Players' Championship, which starts here today. It had better happen otherwise heavyweight boxing will become a belly laugh or nothing.. Myself, I have no interest in margarine beyond knowing that the profits from its manufacture helped to fund the publication of Cyril Connolly's literary magazine Horizon at the start of the second World War. But the state of opinion within the IRA itself looks distinctly febrile: Sinn Fein seems anxious to be at the table, but the IRA certainly killed two men in Belfast earlier this year, resulting in the temporary suspension of Sinn Fein from the talks. While Woods works on peaking for the US Masters in two weeks' time, Els showed he is already in prime form by winning the Bay Hill Invitational last week, outscoring Woods by 12 strokes over the final two rounds. But Els insisted: "Tiger should be regarded as the best player in the world. This week, Lewis versus Briggs, who may, or may not, be a credible contender.

In June, Holyfield must face the discredited Akinwande in defence of the WBA title before putting up the IBF crown against the anonymous Vaughn Bean.History suggests that someone will come along. "Unfortunately, none of those guys, Golota included, performed the roles I wanted from them or that the public wanted," he said.Trouble is that the heavyweight division, ridden as ever with promotional intrigue, doesn't appear to be going anywhere. "Looking back, that defeat turned things around for me," he added. "It got me together with Emanual Steward and he's taken off the rough edges Losing to McCall took a great weight off my shoulders It gave me a different attitude I'd lost focus. But I thought, 'I can't go out like this'."Lewis's last three victories were over McCall, who didn't want to fight, Henry Akinwande, disqualified for holding, and Andrew Golota, who offered no opposition when knocked out in the opening round.Because Lewis did not take exploit McCall's obvious dishevelment and made no great effort to shake up Akinwande he is still striving to make a reputation in the United States. It didn't happen so I've just got to keep going until the situation changes."Briggs got his chance through a controversial points decision over Foreman last November Briggs said that Foreman's jab was the stiffest he has felt.

"Yet," said Lewis.The lowest point in Lewis's career came in September 1994 when he lost the WBC title to Oliver McCall on a second-round knockout. "To prove you are the best you have to fight whoever is thought to be the best which is why I wanted Holyfield. "If they come up with the money I'll do it," Holmes said this week.News like that adds to the frustration felt by Lewis as he prepares to make a mandatory defence of the WBC crown against Shannon Briggs in Atlantic City on Saturday "Briggs definitely wasn't on my agenda," Lewis said. Tyson, who is also involved in an attempt to split from Don King and his co-managers, John Horne and Rory Holloway, has no more than a couple of contests left and may already be finished.With no clear prospect of a unifying contest between the leading title- holders, Evander Holyfield (World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation) and Lennox Lewis (World Boxing Council) there is now the squalid possibility that Foreman and Holmes will be resurrected to meet in the year of their 50th birthdays.Thought up as a pay-per-view event by Harold Smith, who served time for embezzlement, it could be worth $10m (pounds 6.2m) to Foreman against $4m for Holmes. The supporting cast of Ken Norton, Jimmy Young, Earnie Shavers and others provided plenty of excitement, too.In generational conflict it is probably felt that older sportswriters are naturally perverse, and admiration is wrung from us only by the supreme artistry of a particularly good performance.