What's in a name? Here are some tournaments with the word Masters in their titles: Asian Masters, Australian Ladies Masters, Australian Masters, British Masters, Dunhill Masters, European Masters, Future Masters, German Masters, London Masters, Scandinavian Masters, Taiheiyo Masters, Volvo Masters, Windsor Senior Masters.

The Masters Tournament may have a copyright on its famous logo, but the word ``Masters'' is free game.

The number of professional golf tournaments around the world with the word Masters as part of its title taxes the mind. On the PGA European Tour alone, there are six Masters-related tournaments.

And then there are other tours that have Masters-related titles, such as the Asian Masters, the Australian Masters, the Indonesian Masters and the London Masters.

The women are represented too. There is an Australian Ladies Masters.

Even an American junior golf tournament got into the act starting in the 1960s. The Future Masters is still held each summer in Dothan, Ala.

Of course, there is only one real Masters and that starts Thursday at the Augusta National Golf Club.

``The Masters is the Masters,'' said Australian Wayne Grady. ``Every other place has tried to run their own Masters. There is nothing wrong with having a tournament and calling it the Australian Masters or the European Masters. As far as being comparable to the U.S. Masters, they're not. They only have the same name.''

``I think the Masters is the Masters wherever you are,'' said Scotland's Colin Montgomerie of the Augusta tournament. ``Every European golfer, if you're talking about the Masters, they immediately think of Augusta.''

Not so in Australia. According to rising star Robert Allenby of Melbourne, this week's Masters is known in his homeland as the U.S. Masters to differentiate it from the Australian Masters.

Similarly, in America we call the British Open by its full name so there is no confusion with our U.S. Open. On the other side of the Atlantic, the British Open is simply known as ``the Open Championship. In America, we tend to call the U.S. Open by two words, ``the Open.''

According to Renton Laidlaw of the (London) Evening Standard, the Australian Masters is the tournament that most tries to pattern itself after the real Masters.

``They even give the winner a gold jacket (instead of the green jacket they have at the Masters),'' Laidlaw said.

With so many PGA European Tour events with Masters in their titles, there naturally is a pecking order of importance to them.

The six tournaments are the Scandinavian Masters, the German Masters, the British Masters, the Turespana Masters Open, the European Masters and the Volvo Masters.

Of the six, the most prestigious is the Volvo Masters, the season-concluding event on the PGA European Tour. While the PGA Tour's season-ending event, the Tour Championship, brings together the top 30 money winners from the season, the Volvo Masters gathers the top 66 from its tour.

``That's our ultimate event,'' said Scotland's Sam Torrance. ``It's the most prestigious because you have to qualify for it,'' said Andrew Both of the Australian Associated Press.

However, the Volvo Masters is not the most important event on the PGA European Tour, just the No. 1 tournament with the word Masters attached to it.

It is preceded in stature by the The British Open and the Volvo PGA Championship, according to Bernie McGuire, an Australian free lance writer who covers the PGA European Tour.

The Volvo PGA Championship, annually held at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, England, is the PGA European Tour's version of the PGA Tour's Players Championship. Both tournaments have full fields (more than 144 golfers) of the most elite golfers on each tour.