Thorpe shoots for third title on Champions Tour

Jim Thorpe is one of four two-time winners on the Champions Tour this year. He hopes to become the only three-time winner this week at the Senior Players Championship at Dearborn, Mich., the second of the tour's five major championships.

Thorpe, defending champion Craig Stadler, Bruce Fleisher and Hale Irwin, the top-ranked player on the Champions Tour, have all won twice this year. Nine others have won tournaments.

Thanks to a hot putter, Thorpe won last week in New York and last month in Michigan.

"I would be really happy to be the first three-time winner this year," Thorpe said Wednesday. "And I think I've got a shot because I've played well here the last two years with a couple second-place finishes."

Thorpe only wished it was as easy to beat the 50-and-over set now as it was when he joined the Champions Tour in 1999.

"When I first came out here, you could hand pick about eight guys that were the ones to beat," he said. "Now, all 78 guys out here can win."

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem likes that.

"The PGA Tour now attracts the best players in the world, and the Champions Tour has attracted all the best players in the world over 50," Finchem said.

The Senior Players is the first of three straight majors on the schedule. In two weeks, the Senior British Open starts, followed by the U.S. Senior Open the next week near St. Louis.

Irwin will not go to Northern Ireland in part to avoid the long flights and what they might do to his back.

"I don't think any of us like this back-to-back-to-back stuff," Irwin said. "Hopefully, it's just a quirky thing."

It's not.

Finchem said Wednesday the current, cramped schedule for three of the majors on the Champions Tour will be in place through 2006.

"We would obviously like to get more spacing with the majors on this tour, but there are a number of obstacles," said Finchem, referring to television commitments and the limited number of warm-weather months.

DANIEL CONTEMPLATING RETIREMENT: Beth Daniel has far greater concerns than defending her title at the Canadian Women's Open this week.

Frustrated by her performance this year, the 47-year-old Hall-of-Famer is contemplating the possibility of retiring at the end of this season, her 26th as a professional.

"This year has just not been good at all," Daniel said. "And it would be very, very easy for me to walk away from it at the end of this year if I continue playing this way."

Daniel's comments came during a news conference attended by just four reporters, perhaps a sign of how far she's fallen.