Can new rivalries put golf on an upswing?

Such divergent personalities - and playing styles - delight the fans. Can Singh's putter hold up this week? Will Els overcome the demons of last year's last-hole loss? And can Mickelson and Woods control past and present tendencies, respectively, to rescue themselves from stray shots time and again?

"Every sport needs rivalries," says John Feinstein, a best-selling golf writer. "Not just stars, but rivalries. What you have now with these four guys are genuine rivalries. Start with Tiger and Phil, who still don't like each other, no matter how much they claim otherwise."

The big question for the golfing world is whether those matchups can bring back viewers. With the current four-year, $850 million golf TV contract expiring next year, the PGA Tour is negotiating with networks for a new deal. To increase those essential TV dollars, the tour must be able to make the case that golf is again on the upswing.

Those rivalries may be the buzz heading into this week's Masters, but the tournament is, like so many Southern institutions, a spectacle rooted in tradition above all else. For example, while other major sporting events shift TV alliances on a regular basis, this marks the 50th consecutive year CBS will broadcast the Masters.

Augusta National is the most exclusive of clubs, even once turning up its nose at Microsoft baron Bill Gates when he made a public entreaty to be added as a member. (He was later admitted, though club representatives never disclose membership details.)

For the Masters, the club maintains a longstanding policy of keeping everything just so. Unlike other tournaments, the Masters allows no corporate advertising on the course. Organizers also keep concessions affordable, charging just $3.25 for a trademark pimento cheese sandwich, chips, and a Coke. Tickets, long sold out and tightly controlled by members, cost $175 for four days, a paltry sum compared with $600 Super Bowl tickets.

On TV, the gauzy shots and tinkling-piano soundtracks produced by CBS fit the exacting standards of Augusta National pooh-bahs.

This week, the Masters will include TV advertising after a two-year, self-imposed hiatus. In 2003, National Council of Women's Organizations chair Martha Burk demanded that the club include female members, generating a lengthy media swirl.

Augusta National Chairman William "Hootie" Johnson responded to Ms. Burk's attempt to pressure the tournament's advertisers by having the tournament broadcast without commercial interruption to spare corporate backers public embarrassment. Even without those ads, Golf Digest estimated the Masters reaped more than $40 million in revenue last year.

Augusta National has not relented on the membership issue and Burk's small protest in a remote field far removed from the golf club at the 2003 tournament sputtered.

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