Sports

Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan are two different people who play two very different aports. Yet, they seem to share two important things. They share a passion for winning and a major sponsor. They have decided to play an organized golf match for the first time in the pro-am event at the U.S. PGA Tour’s Wachovia Championship. About 5,000 fans cheered Woods, the world’s top-ranked golfer, and Jordan, a five-time Most Valuable Player in the National Basketball Association, as they began their round at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Less than 1 1/2 hours later, the gallery had grown to about 10,000 people. Such events, which match a professional golfer with amateur partners, often have groups that are followed by few spectators beyond the families of those involved. When Woods plays in Tour events, half the crowd usually is with his group.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Katie Simmons, a 62-year-old FedEx Corp. employee who asked her boss for the day off to attend today’s practice round. “I love Tiger and I love Michael Jordan, and I will never get the chance to be this close to either one of them again.”

Simmons, a Charlotte resident, snapped photos of the duo with a disposable camera from behind the third green as Jordan puffed on a cigar and Woods practiced his putting. Woods, 31, and Jordan, 44, are close friends and have played recreational rounds together. In 2004, Jordan spoke to the U.S. Ryder Cup team before its loss to the Europeans. The athletes also are prime endorsers of Nike Inc., each having his own line of athletic apparel produced by the world’s largest athletic-shoe maker.

The pairing of Woods and Jordan was the top-ranked golfer’s idea, said Tournament Director Kym Hougham. He received a call from Woods’s agent, Mark Steinberg, last week asking if it would be possible, and he initially thought Steinberg was calling to say that Woods was going to skip the tournament. Because a representative from the tournament’s title sponsor typically gets a spot in the Woods group, Charlotte based Wachovia Corp. had to agree to give it to Beck, who had asked to play with Jordan.

“They didn’t want to not give the people the chance to see this,” Hougham said of Wachovia’s decision. “This may never happen again.” After disclosing the high-profile pairing two days ago, Hougham said, he fielded about 50 calls for tickets. The tournament had previously sold all of its 35,000 pro-am round tickets. Lee Patterson, the tournament’s media director, said he turned down 46 last-minute requests for press credentials.

“We just couldn’t handle it,” Patterson said. Additional marshals and security personnel were assigned to the group to control the large gallery, Hougham said. In September, Woods was named the most influential sports endorser, edging Jordan, according to a survey conducted last year by Los Angeles-based marketing agency Davie Brown Entertainment.