ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, August 27, 1996               TAG: 9608270093
SECTION: SPORTS                   PAGE: B-3  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From Associated Press and New York Times reports 

WOODS SET TO TURN PROFESSIONAL

Now the high life really begins for Tiger Woods, the 20-year-old golfer who has decided to begin his professional career.

It will start with his signature on a contract with Nike worth $40 million over the next five years. His coming-out party is scheduled for Wednesday, when he is expected to announce he will play in the Greater Milwaukee Open.

Woods, who was to be a junior at Stanford in the fall, has flown coach class, counted his meal money and played amateur golf for the last time. The hottest rumor floating around Portland, Ore., where Woods won his third consecutive U.S. Amateur in stunning fashion Sunday, was that he would jet cross-country in a Gulfstream IV owned by the founder of Nike, Phil Knight.

Whatever his method of conveyance to his first event as a professional, he will arrive in style. In addition to the Nike deal, he will sign an agreement with Titleist for $3 million over three years, making this the largest golf deal ever for a rookie.

The only money concerns Woods will ever have again concern his rank on the PGA Tour money list, and whether he will earn enough between now and the Oldsmobile Classic at Walt Disney World to make the top 125 on the list and earn his 1997 PGA Tour card without a trip to the fall Qualifying School.

Those who are familiar with his plans say Woods will play in seven tournaments before the end of the year. To make the top 125, he will need to earn more than $150,000 in the events for which he will get sponsor's exemptions, a schedule that includes the Milwaukee event this week, the Quad City Classic, the B.C. Open, the Buick Challenge, the Las Vegas Invitational, the LaCantera Texas Open and one event to be named later.

A pollster hired by the Harlem Wizards basketball troupe testified that if the Washington Bullets change their name, as planned, to the Washington Wizards, the Wizards name will become overwhelmingly associated with the NBA team.

The Harlem Wizards, based in North Bergen, N.J., have used the name since about 1960 and are asking a federal judge to bar the Bullets from becoming the Wizards in the 1997-98 season.

LENGTH: Short :   46 lines