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Vijay Singh says Annika Sorenstam has no business playing in the Colonial next week and "I hope she misses the cut." On the chance he gets paired with her, he'll withdraw.

"Why? Because she doesn't belong out here," Singh said after his runner-up finish in the Wachovia Championship. "If I'm drawn with her, which I won't be, I won't play."

Singh knows he won't be playing in the same group as Sorenstam when she becomes the first woman in 58 years to compete on the PGA Tour. His name will be drawn from a pool of PGA Tour winners when the pairings are made.

Still, his comments were the strongest yet about Sorenstam's decision to accept a sponsor's exemption to play in the Colonial. The last woman to play on the PGA Tour was Babe Zaharias, who qualified for the 1945 Los Angeles Open.

Nick Price, the defending champion at Colonial, has said Sorenstam's presence "reeks of publicity." He thinks she ought to qualify if she wants to prove herself at the highest level.

Scott Hoch, who once played with Sorenstam in a mixed-team tournament, said he wants to see her play well so people will realize "how much separation there is between us and the ladies' (LPGA) tour."

Singh held nothing back in an interview with the Associated Press as he left the locker room at Quail Hollow Sunday, saying the 32-year-old Swede should stick to her own tour.

"What is she going to prove by playing? It's ridiculous," said Singh, a two-time major champion who is No. 7 in the world ranking. "She's the best woman golfer in the world, and I want to emphasize 'woman.' We have our tour for men, and they have their tour. She's taking a spot from someone in the field."

The Colonial is an invitational with a limited field. Sorenstam received one of eight sponsor's exemptions.

In 1998, Singh played in an unofficial event called the "Super Tour" that matched the scorecards of nine professionals after playing 18 holes a day in four Asian cities. Laura Davies was invited to play, and finished 39 strokes behind Singh.

TIGER SETS SCHEDULE: Tiger Woods is skipping the Colonial, and will likely go to the U.S. Open having played only two tournaments since the Masters.

He'll be at this week's Deutsche Bank-SAP Open, where he is a three-time winner and the defending champion, and then return for the Memorial, where he is a three-time champion.

He's not going to play the Colonial. "No Colonial," he said during a teleconference at the U.S. Open media day. "I'm out."

This year's $6 million U.S. Open will be June 12-15 at Olympia Fields (Ill.) Country Club.

MEMORIAL TICKETS: Beginning at 9 a.m. today, a limited number of all-tournament patron badges will be released for sale to the public 2003 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, May 26-June 1. The badges are $140. The public may call the ticket office at 614-889-6700 between 9 a.m.-4 p.m.