TIME FOR ALL-TIGER CHANNEL.

Byline: Tom Hoffarth Media

He's not just the cover kid on the new issue of Time magazine, but his head covers three of the four letters in the title, barely leaving room for an ``E.''

Can Tiger Woods get any bigger?

Maybe that's the point of putting this ``exclusive'' interview out there ahead of, oh say, the Democratic National Convention or other pressing news stories of the day. After all, Time's story is about ``how the greatest golfer in the world risked it all in his quest to become the greatest golfer in history.''

Not to ruin the story for everyone - who has time to read Time anyway? - but this life-altering development has nothing to do with Tiger's stance on race, creed or color of his club covers.

He just changed his freakin' swing, OK? Save the transparent graphics for Golf Digest.

--A modest proposal: The only compelling note to come out of that Time story is this Tiger tidbit: ``About 50 percent of those who watch Woods play on TV have never played.''

If that's true - and, again, it's in Time, so it must be - TV has no choice but to change the way it covers tournaments where he is competing.

Simply, create a separate Tiger Channel, one that exclusively follows him around the course, shot by shot, checking his yardage card, joking with his caddy, scowling at someone in the crowd who takes his picture during a backswing or interrupts his train of thought by yelling to a friend on a cell phone.

Then throw the rest of the tournament on a cable channel.

``I think that could happen in the future,'' admits Lance Barrow, CBS' coordinating producer for golf who has the distinct pleasure of recording Tiger's almost every move this weekend from the Buick Open in Michigan and then next week when he defends his PGA Championship.

``I'm not an expert on this subject, but in any sport 10 years down the road, in any game, if you want to watch a wide receiver, or if you're only an Ernie Els fan, you'll be able to focus only on him somehow.''

We've heard all about this technology before, where you become the director at home and pick which camera angle you want to follow. But we're suggesting an even more extreme measure of satisfying these ``Survivor''-crazed audiences.

We can't wait 10 years. We can't wait 10 more minutes.

Besides, the way other PGA pros talk, they'd be more than happy if they didn't have to share TV time with Tiger any more than they already do.

``You know, talking about today's technology, Tiger is lucky the PGA isn't into reality programming,'' quipped David Feherty, CBS' witty course reporter. ``Otherwise he'd have been voted off the broadcast long ago.''

--Yet another ``Outside'' take: ESPN's newish weekly ``Outside the Lines'' show (7:30 a.m. Sunday, repeated at 10 a.m. on ESPN2) plans to examine the Tiger effect on the game and the culture in the next Bob Ley-hosted show.

--Hats off to Visser: She said watching the first ``Monday Night Football'' exhibition telecast a week ago was ``bittersweet,'' kind of like ``going to an old boyfriend's wedding.''

Other than that, Lesley Visser has no bitterness toward ABC for bouncing her off the high-profile event. She says she's happily going back to CBS Sports, for that matter, where the former Boston Globe reporter spent her first six years in TV before defecting to the ABC family seven years ago.

``I guess I should be flattered that it took two people to replace me,'' said Visser, displaced by new producer Don Olhmeyer from ``MNF'' as a sideline reporter in favor of Melissa Stark and Eric Dickerson.

Visser said she had two years remaining on her ABC/ESPN contract, and the network offered her some choice assignments (such as hosting ``Wide World of Sports'') to stay. The chance to work on the NFL, NCAA basketball and the U.S. Open tennis tournament for CBS, as well as do stories for that network's news shows like ``48 Hours'' was what Visser decided was more important.

She added that there's been no real thought to join an ageism lawsuit against ABC, pursued by former reporter Donna DeVarona. Visser, it could be surmised, would have something to complain about since the younger Stark was the one who got her job, which is basically no more than window dressing on a telecast.

CBS Sports chief Sean McManus, who called Visser's hiring a ``no-brainer,'' said he doesn't believe decisions on sports talent these days are that cut and dried based on sex or race.

``Every decision is (completely) subjective,'' he said, ``but whatever it is, I believe it's based on ability. These days of categorizing someone as a male or female are behind us.

``At least I hope so.''

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES--To mark the anniversary of the first televised major-league game - the Dodgers-Cincinnati game from Ebbets Field on Aug. 26, 1939, which station W2XBS sent to about 500 homes in New York - Fox will do a ``turn back the clock'' broadcast of the Aug. 26 Dodgers-Cubs game from Wrigley Field. Meaning, Fox's coverage with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver will do each inning as it would have been during that decade, starting with the 1930s and progressing steadily. Meaning, it'll be in black-and-white with a two-camera setup for that first inning, progression to instant replay capabilities and color by the fifth inning (representing the 1960s) with more graphics and super slo-mo cameras by game's end.

--A clutch interview. Scott Verona at the dunk.net Web site had an extended Q-and-A posted on the site hours after Lakers executive Jerry West officially announced his retirement Monday. Verona did the interview at West's Bel-Air home last week.

--Early favorite at NBC to do XFL play-by-play (and actually do it willingly): Chris Marlowe

WHAT CHOKES--More ESPN sexual harassment findings. Michael Freeman, the New York Times writer who authored the ``uncensored history'' book of the all-sports network that was released earlier this year, confirmed that two more male employees have been punished for inappropriate behavior toward female employees. One on-air anchor was suspended a week. Another well-regarded producer and one of the most senior people at the Bristol, Conn., offices was suspended for one month after what Freeman discovered was his seventh offense. The latest incidents will be chronicled in depth in the paperback version of the book to be published.

--Kenny Mayne, ESPN's deadpan ``SportsCenter'' anchor, is the unusual choice to liven up the network's new game show called ``2 Minute Drill'' by acting as the host. By the time the show debuts Sept. 11, Mayne will hopefully be so amused by the simplicity of this game that he'll convey as much.

--A big shout-out to Randy Sparage . . . easy on the Fred Flintstone bellowing from the Fox Sports Net Regional Sports desk. It's loud enough with rah-rah reports (you can only call the Dodgers ``our boys in blue'' once a telecast), but the additional yabba-dabba-dos don't help the volume control, either.

CAPTION(S):

box

Box: Sound bytes (see text)