Fairways

AUGUSTA, Ga. - At about the time that the woman who wants Augusta National to rescind its men-only membership policy was being denied a protest permit yesterday, the two-time defending champion made the Masters scene. As high-profile players who have both used symbolism to wage their separate battles, Tiger Woods and Martha Burk would seem to have a lot in common. But here is where we are wrong to expect Woods to link his presence and power to the valid issue Burk advances. Woods wants to win this Masters on the long, unrelenting fairways and soggy (yet still speedy)

In his 1959 novel "Goldfinger," Ian Fleming draws upon the peculiarities of Royal St. George's as a faintly disguised setting for a high-stakes golf match between James Bond and the diabolical Auric Goldfinger. British Open entrants, though, might be just as apt to guess the scene was part of "Moonraker. " "Lunar" is a popular word to describe the bumps and pockmarks that spatter the fairways on the southeast England linksland, frequently kicking an unsuspecting player's shot into waist-high heather — or worse.

ST. LOUIS -- No matter where the pros play a golf tournament, there will be complaints. The PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club this week might get complaints of a different kind.The PGA at Bellerive will be the first PGA Tour event conducted on zoysia grass fairways. That's not bad, it's good. Maybe too good."Arnold Palmer was here," Bellerive pro Jerry Tucker said last week, "and he said the fairways might be too good and they might not test the shot-making ability of the field."St.

Camilo Villegas had just one request for fans now empowered to bring cell phones to the PGA Tour's fairways. "Just turn (the sound) off, guys — 'vibrate,'" the Colombian pro said during an appearance to promote next month's Honda Classic. As if on cue, someone's phone announced its presence at the back of the room. "Heard one!" Villegas quipped. It won't be the last. Intermittent breaches of the old "Quiet, please" standard are bound to happen. Heck, they've been happening for years as folks sneaked their mobile devices onto the course in violation of the old ban. Now, though, they'll be more annoyance than outrage, an occupational hazard.

Towson Golf and Country Club is a position golf course. It's what players had been saying all week, and Billy Wingerd used that characteristic to his benefit throughout the Maryland State Amateur Championship, claiming the title yesterday with a 5-and-4 win over Tom Winegardner. Wingerd's game plan for the tournament was simply to hit the fairways and hit the greens. He accomplished his plan, hitting eight of 14 fairways on the first 18 holes and eight of 13 fairways on the last 14 holes.

Greystone, a northern Baltimore County golf project that has been on and off for more years than people care to remember, will open officially for play Thursday.The public, daily-fee facility incorporates the rolling countryside, presenting both tree-lined and wide-open holes, along with five ponds. From the under-construction clubhouse site at the highest point of the property in White Hall, the vistas are dramatic.Joe Lee, the Florida-based architect who was part of the original team, developed a design that includes five sets of tees and plays from 4,800 to 6,925 yards, with a par of 72.Greystone is owned by the financially independent Baltimore County Revenue Authority, which bought the property about the same time it was negotiating for control of the county's other three public courses in 1995.

Marc Norman lives on Golf Island Road in Turf Valley, a Howard County address he was drawn to four years ago by the attraction of living in a community with no less than three golf courses. A casual golfer, his home overlooks the lush 14th fairway of one of the courses. "That's the sole reason we came here," Norman said as he watched from his backyard deck one sunny afternoon last week as a pair of duffers played through. But now, 18 of Turf Valley's 54 holes have been closed, and the abandoned tees, greens and fairways appear destined to become driveways, condominiums, shops and offices.

BETHESDA -- By early afternoon, with only four sub-par rounds on the board, Nick Price figured par was about 73 or 74. There is a celebrity-studded group that wouldn't mind having it at 75.That, not regulation par-70 for Congressional Country Club, looked like the number after a steady procession of tour players, notably Greg Norman, Davis Love III, Phil Mickelson, Steve Elkington, Billy Andrade, Tom Kite and Donnie Hammond, checked in with that score during...

As his friends tell it, Danny Coverston rarely met a person he didn't like. The word around Towson University is that Coverston, 22, was consistently amiable and gregarious and liked nothing more than a good laugh. He had a whopping 787 friends on Facebook. Which is why no one could imagine yesterday why anybody would want to kill him. "I don't think I knew anyone who did not like him," said Daniel Abraham, a sports columnist at The Towerlight, the campus newspaper, who once lived in the same Lachlan Circle apartment that later became Coverston's home and the place where his body was found Saturday afternoon, with a fatal gunshot wound in the head.

Good morning --Tiger Woods -- Keep in mind, your red shirts match the brown fairways.

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Several pros mocked Whistling Straits' 18th hole after the 2004 PGA Championship, saying it seemed contrived and had too small a green. Fuzzy Zoeller called the 500-yard par-4 "a joke" and added, "There's nothing good about it. " Now it's all good. Architect Pete Dye expanded the fairway, allowing players to try to bomb it over the giant bunker complex on the left. Steve Stricker used the new strip of fairway as a lay-up area in the first round — and got up-and-down for par after a gorgeous wedge shot from 142 yards.

PORT-AU-PRINCE -Jean-Michel Frederick lives at the Petionville Club, near the golf course's ninth tee, with a grand view of the valley and the harbor. n That would have meant prestige a few weeks ago. Today it means sleeping with his family on the side of a hill inside a patchwork tent made of sticks and bed linens, wedged into a human collage of 30,000 fellow Haitians displaced by the earthquake. "Of course, we do not choose to live here, but it is safe from the earthquake and the Americans are here," said Frederick, as he stood in line with his mother and a thousand others, clutching the green Catholic Relief Services ticket that promised his family a two-week supply of food.

As his friends tell it, Danny Coverston rarely met a person he didn't like. The word around Towson University is that Coverston, 22, was consistently amiable and gregarious and liked nothing more than a good laugh. He had a whopping 787 friends on Facebook. Which is why no one could imagine yesterday why anybody would want to kill him. "I don't think I knew anyone who did not like him," said Daniel Abraham, a sports columnist at The Towerlight, the campus newspaper, who once lived in the same Lachlan Circle apartment that later became Coverston's home and the place where his body was found Saturday afternoon, with a fatal gunshot wound in the head.

THE BEAUTY OF BAD GOLF IS THAT you can play it anywhere. You can play it on the worst cow-pasture municipal course or at the best hoity-toity country club and the results will be pretty much the same: lots of ugly shots, lots of aggravation, followed by -- if you don't immediately go into therapy -- a few laughs when you mentally replay the round later over beers with friends. For my 20-handicap game, the advantage of a gorgeous golf course, like the one I played on a weekend getaway to Rocky Gap Lodge and Golf Resort in Western Maryland, is that I can blame the surroundings for distracting me and causing another meltdown on the scorecard.

Good morning --Tiger Woods -- Keep in mind, your red shirts match the brown fairways.

If there's one word that sums up the feeling at the Yellow Dress Golf Classic dinner, it was "family." Not only did the event benefit the family-founded Kristin Rita Strouse Foundation, but there was a feeling of family in the Hillendale Country Club ballroom, where several hundred folks gathered. Sharon and Doug Strouse had started the foundation and the golf tournament not long after their daughter ended her own life in 2001. They and their daughter Kimberly and son Kevin warmly welcomed guests.

GULLANE, Scotland -- J. A. Prideaux has spent most of this summer wondering whether it was ever going to rain.This is not typically a concern in Scotland, but the Muirfield secretary had reason to worry. With each unseasonably warm and sunny day, Muirfield grew drier and browner. Imagine moving the 1992 British Open to Arizona from bonnie Scotland."It was the fairways that I was most concerned with," Prideaux said last week. "We had seven weeks of no rain. That would do the fairways no good whatsoever."

Where -- 320 Blenheim Lane, Havre de Grace, MD 21078 Phone -- 410-939-8887 Online data -- www.BulleRock.com Course description -- 18 holes. World-class Pete Dye design opened in 1998. Tees, fairways and greens are bent grass, rough is bluegrass and borders are tall fescue. Continuous cart paths. Tees -- Black, 7,375 yards; blue, 6,843; white, 6,360; red, 5,426. Time spacing -- 10 minutes. Cost -- $145 per player includes greens fee, cart fee, warm-up on the driving range before play, use of locker room facilities.

Where -- 320 Blenheim Lane, Havre de Grace, MD 21078 Phone -- 410-939-8887 Online data -- www.BulleRock.com Course description -- 18 holes. World-class Pete Dye design opened in 1998. Tees, fairways and greens are bent grass, rough is bluegrass and borders are tall fescue. Continuous cart paths. Tees -- Black, 7,375 yards; blue, 6,843; white, 6,360; red, 5,426. Time spacing -- 10 minutes. Cost -- $145 per player includes greens fee, cart fee, warm-up on the driving range before play, use of locker room facilities.