Place an Ad Calendars Classified Forums Sports Weather

sptimes.com Text-only News sections Arts & Entertainment AP The Wire Business Citrus County Columnists Floridian Hernando County Hillsborough Letters Movies Neighborhood Times News Update North Pinellas North of Tampa Obituaries Opinion Pasco County South Pinellas Sports State Tampa Bay TV Times World & Nation  Find your local news section Weekly sections Brandon Times City Times Homes Outdoors Perspective Personal Tech Taste Travel Weekend Xpress Special Sections Arena football Buccaneers College football Devil Rays Lightning Police reports Schools Seniority Subscriber Services Subscribe Renew Help Advertise Place an ad In print Online Market Info Join Us Internships Scholarships Times Jobs Contact us

Take a virtual tour of the Masters

Just as Augusta National is the jewel of the PGA season, the official site of this weekend's tournament -- masters.org -- is as good as golf coverage gets online.

For those unfortunate fans without a TV in the office, it's the best way to follow the second round, starting with a comprehensive live leaderboard. You can follow the field or any player with a full run of updated statistics, showing for instance that first-round leader Davis Love hit greens on 81 percent of his holes Thursday, 25 percent ahead of the field average.

Visitors with broadband connections can watching streaming interviews with top players, listen to live play-by-play radio broadcasts, take virtual flyovers of all 18 holes or a walking tour of the course that shows 360-degree panoramic images from the tee boxes and daily pin placements.

The photo gallery has shots of every player, and the FAQ page covers 62 questions, ranging from "Where can I park?" to explanations for the flora-based names for each hole and the origins of the name Amen Corner, which trace back to a 1958 Sports Illustrated article.

Short of a pimento cheese sandwich or two, you can't get closer to Augusta National without upsetting the marshals. And for a laugh, try tigerwoodsisgod.com, a 5-year-old site deemed "blasphemous" by 37 percent of visitors to the site's poll page.

HOW MUCH FOR A GREEN JACKET?: There are more than 3,000 Masters-related items on eBay.com this week, but one of the gems comes from a Tampa-area collectibles dealer. The piece features a flag from the Masters and several pictures, with signatures from 31 Masters champions, including Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson. Bidding was at $2,000 Thursday, and the only Masters items drawing higher bids were coming from Woods himself.

The Tiger Woods Foundation offered an autographed Masters flag (bidding at $4,600), or for those with more money in their Paypal accounts, a round of golf for four with Woods on his home course at Isleworth Country Club in Windermere. With two days remaining the package was bidding at $125,000.

CHEW ON THIS: The controversial wad of Luis Gonzalez's gum was bidding at $3,400 on Thursday at nocontraction.com. Amid allegations the gum wasn't actually chewed by the Diamondbacks slugger, Gonzalez graciously agreed to chew another piece of gum and donate it with the original piece. In a true tongue-in-cheek follow-up, a piece of gum chewed by Pete Rose this week on ESPN's Mohr Sports late-night show is now on eBay.com with bidding at $2,075 and proceeds going to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

TID-BYTES: A recent "upgrade" to jimrome.com looks disappointing: the radio show's official site has little more than audio clips, which are only available if you pay $7 a month to subscribe to StreamLink, which offers the show live and in an archive format. Jim Rome might find out quickly that successful sites are like radio: popular, but free. As the host would say: Have a site, don't charge. ... Poor judgment honors for the week go to Sportsline.com, which led its page Wednesday night with a picture of Woods and the headline "Yes, Masters". ... ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. has four players from Miami and Florida in his latest mock first round of the NFL draft. Steve Spurrier's Redskins aren't among the projected Gator-pickers: Kiper has the 'Skins taking Nebraska guard Toniu Fonoti. Why bet against Jabar Gaffney there? ... Move over, Anna Kournikova: Another Ron Zook site has popped up, this to counter the premature fireronzook.com. Adam Cohn, a 1999 Florida grad who lives in Winter Park, has launched supportzook.com, which he said is to "show the world that we're all behind our new coach." The site boldly counts down the seconds until Zook's first big game, Sept. 7 at home against Miami.

-- If you have a question or comment about the Internet or a site to suggest, e-mail staff writer Greg Auman at auman@sptimes.com.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright