In the 2003 Victorian PGA Golf Championship, 4 of the top 5 finishers used clubs gripped with GripMaster genuine leather grips. These grips, previously only available in Australia, are now available in limited quantities in the North America through TheGripMasterUSA. ...

Mitchell Golf Equipment Company announces its exclusive distribution of the Fuller Cup Tour Performance Putting Cup. This putting practice device can be used indoors to help golfers develop a consistent putting stroke and outdoors to practice all types of uphill, downhill and side hill putts. ...

Etonic Worldwide introduces its 2004 Footwear Line. Four distinct shoe categories with suggested retail ranging from $130 to $55 include: Stabilite Plus, Stabilites, Dri-Cushion, and Lites, each featuring Etonic's patented Stabilizer Technology. ...

According to the Darrell Survey, Golf Pride grips were on the clubs of 25 of the 31 golfers competing in the PGA Tour Championship last week. ...

Microsoft Game Studios announces that "Links 2004," the best-selling PC golf franchise, will now tee-off exclusively on Xbox as the first golf title in the XSN Sports portfolio. Featuring top golfers Sergio Garcia, Mike Weir and Annika Sorenstam, "Links 2004" is set to hit store shelves on November 13. ...

Ireland's Des Smyth and Argentina's Vicente Fernandez are named to the Rest of the World team to complete the rosters for both UBS Cup teams for 2003. The event between the United States and World teams will be held at Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club November 20-23. ...

Bethesda Memorial Hospital is named the official hospital of the LPGA Tour's ADT Championship. ...

Insignia Trading appoints Mike Feld as the Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Louisiana sales representative for the company's branded and private label wrap grips, graphite shafts, travel covers and golf bags. ...

Northern Virginia residents Sherry Bowman, 50, of Manassas, Linda DiVall, 51, of Alexandria and Sara Hurwitch, 15, of Potomac Falls have garnered Virginia State Golf Association's Women's Division golfer of the year accolades, as announced at the women's division's annual meeting. ...

Junior Golf Scoreboard extends its five-year streak of improved readership as October's increase in individual user sessions jumped by two-thirds, tying the best performance in a record-breaking year. The number of unique sessions also rose by 67 percent in July.

The 2003 PGA Tour season, which officially ended last week when Chad Campbell won the Tour Championship, was as surprising in its own way as the previous season when 18 players won their first titles.

That trend didn't continue into 2003, when only seven players managed their maiden tour victories.

Of course, two of those initial wins came in the majors, where Ben Curtis, No. 396 in the world, won the British Open and Shaun Micheel took the PGA Championship.

Mike Weir and Jim Furyk, the winners of the Masters and U.S. Open, respectively, also claimed their first majors. Weir and Furyk were established stars on tour, however, lacking only a major title to step into the upper echelons of the game.

What was a bit surprising was that Weir, who began the season with a splash, failed to win after the Masters. He sandwiched February victories in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and the Nissan Open around a tie for third at Pebble Beach before breaking through at Augusta. Weir did finish third in three straight tournaments, the Memorial, U.S. Open and Western Open, but the early part of the season was definitely Weir's time.

The Open was Furyk's first victory of 2003, and he followed shortly with a win at the Buick Open after missing the cut in the British.

Neither Curtis nor Micheel did much after their major triumphs, and that probably was to be expected, considering the dizzying heights each player reached so unexpectedly. Curtis played only seven more tournaments after prevailing at Royal St. George's and didn't finish better than a tie for 16th in any of them.

Micheel played only five tournaments after his PGA win, with a tie for 23rd being his best showing. Like Curtis, he missed the cut in the Chrysler Championship two weeks ago and did not make enough money to qualify for the Tour Championship.

Months before Curtis and Micheel made headlines, everybody was talking about Ernie Els, who demolished the field in the Mercedes Championships, then won the next week at the Sony Open. Playing a worldwide schedule, Els won four of his first seven events and finished second twice.

When Vijay Singh and Mike Weir won the next two tournaments, 2003 was dubbed the Year of the Internationals. That turned out to be a bit premature, although international players did win 15 titles, seven by Singh and Weir combined.

After Els' victories in Hawaii, the buzz on tour was the prodigious distances he was getting with Titleist driver and ball. That talk, too, gradually died, although it shouldn't have. Nine players averaged more than 300 yards on their measured drives for the season. Only one player, John Daly, had ever averaged 300 for the season.

Ten years ago, Daly led the tour with a 288.9 average. In 2003, Hank Kuehne was the distance champ at 321.4, and Daly was second with a 314.3 average. Daly's 288.9 mark would have tied Micheel this year for 71st place.

When Els left Hawaii, for Australia and Asia, it seemed like a season-long slugfest between him and world No. 1 Tiger Woods was in the offing. It never happened.

Woods, at times accused of being in a slump because he did not win a major this season, had five victories and finished second to Singh in money earnings. He also won the Vardon Trophy for lowest stroke average, was named the PGA of America's Player of the Year, and could well be the PGA Tour's Player of the Year when the results are announced in early December.

Everybody should have such a slump.

As the season progressed, Davis Love III would earn four wins, as did Singh. Kenny Perry became part of renaissance of the over-40 set by winning three titles. In all, 11 players over 40, including Fred Couples, Peter Jacobsen and Craig Stadler, won 15 tournaments.

Among the other stories on tour that were hot, and then not, were Annika Sorenstam becoming the first woman in 58 years to play a PGA Tour event and the Hootie Johnson-Martha Burk flap over Augusta National's lack of a female member.

So what about the players who did not win in 2003?

Phil Mickelson heads that list. After a strong start leading up to a third-place finish in the Masters, Mickelson faded away and accumulated only two more top-10s for the remainder of the year. For the first time since his rookie season in 1992, Mickelson failed to make the Tour Championship.

Sergio Garcia, who won the Mercedes in 2002, also went winless this season while working his way through a swing change.

Mickelson and Garcia had lots of company, though. Only seven players who won in 2002 managed to win in 2003. The winless list includes such players as Rich Beem, Jonathan Byrd, K.J. Choi, Nick Price and Jose Maria Olazabal.

The last time Mickelson failed to win during a season, 1999, he came back had four victories and three seconds the following year. Maybe 2004 will become the season when Mickelson finally loses the title of best player never to have a major.