News And Notes

A Tough Time for Faxon

None of the four members of the U.S. Ryder Cup team who played in last week's CVS Charity Classic-Brad Faxon, Jim Furyk, Justin Leonard and Jeff Maggert—finished in the top 20. In fact Faxon and Maggert didn't make the cut.

Faxon's performance poses the greatest concern for the team. He won the Freeport-McDermott Classic in New Orleans in April and had three seconds before the end of May, but he hasn't cracked the top 10 in his last nine starts. Last month his wife of 10 years, Bonnie, filed for divorce. "[The divorce] has definitely affected me," says Faxon, who has three daughters—Melanie, 8; Emily, 6; and Sophie Lee, 2. "Friends tell you what it's like but you don't know how tough it is until you experience it. You never think it's going to happen to you. I don't know what to think now. It's been hell."

To make matters worse for Faxon, he learned last week that Steve Minelli, his roommate and teammate on the golf team at Furman, had been killed in an automobile crash in Florida. "Seeing something like what happened to Stevie makes me feel like, O.K., [the divorce a is] not the end of the world," Faxon says. "I could be in a better mind-set. I could be playing better. Right now, though, I'm just trying to cope."

Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before

Colin Montgomerie is talking about becoming a full-time member of the U.S. Tour. This, of course, is not the first time the top-ranked European has hinted at such a possibility. In April he told friends he was considering playing in more U.S. events, only to later dismiss the idea, citing family priorities and his belief that he could still improve his game on the European tour.

This time, however, Montgomerie insists that he is not crying wolf. In the last month he has been livid about the poor condition of some of the courses in Europe. "I don't want to be wasting my time playing the sort of courses we've seen in Germany and Switzerland recently," he says.

Montgomerie says that if he decides to join the PGA Tour, he will commit to it wholeheartedly. "It would not be a case of getting in the required number of events by March and then coming back to Europe," he says. "I would play the big tournaments in the summer as well."

Among those who have most actively encouraged Montgomerie to play full time in the U.S. are Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and Callaway, Montgomerie's sponsor. In the end, however, one factor will govern his decision. "There would be no point to playing the PGA Tour unless [by doing so] I become a better golfer," he says. "I look at Nick Faldo, and I don't believe he is any better than he was three years ago [when he joined the Tour]. Then again, I look at Jesper Parnevik. He has improved beyond recognition."

Early Line on the European Lineup