Tiger joins the hunt in Dubai, but at what price?

Well, I guess we’ll start to see more of this…Tiger’s schedule trickling out over the next while. But I think we’ve learned not to start packing our bags to attend his events as he can decide on a whim not to compete if his “extra-curricular” activities interfere or make him too tired to play.
Am I bitter? No…I just sound that way 🙂 – Actually I’m just sad that we’re seeing less and less of him these days…

I wonder if Tiger’s being paid to play this event. It seems that the prize money in tournaments isn’t really the draw much anymore. I guess he’s decided to play because of his course over there (some political correctness perhaps??), but I still wonder if he’s getting a fee just to show up. We know Phil was paid $2M to play the HSBC event just a few weeks ago and he called it a “chance to practice his new Callaways” – Imagine…a $2M practice round – ridiculous!

I have to agree with the article in the Australian which questions strongly that the money is getting out of hand in golf. Did you know that the PGA tour produced 99 millionaires this year — and the European Tour’s season-ending tournament in Dubai will boast $US10m in prize money, the richest event in history.

The skins game with it’s 1 million dollar purse couldn’t get any of the top players interested.

And let’s not even mention the pathetic purses the women compete for…that’s just sad. I wonder how many LPGA players became millionaries this year…not many

The LPGA Tour rolled out an intereeting statistic this year, keeping track of how much a player would have earned by finishing at even par (Eve N. Par) in all official events.
Eve N. Par would have finished with $605,121 to finish at No. 24 on the LPGA money list.

Apply that to the PGA Tour and the statistics get skewed, because Eve N. Par would have won the Masters and the U.S. Open. Total earnings would have been $4,650,492 to finish at No. 5 on the PGA Tour money list, playing in 43 tournaments.

Oh well…on to a cute story…I just read in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that ESPN had a long interview with former NBA star Charles Barkley during the first half of the Southern California-Arizona State game last week. Bob Davie later reported that during the interview, Woods sent this text message to his friend Barkley: “Shut up so I can watch the game.”

You may recall Tiger impersonating Charles’ golf swing, but in case you missed it…here’s Charles’ (if you can stand to watch it :))

and here’s Tiger’s impersonation of Charles’ swing…

Gotta be good friends to get away with all that trash talking, eh?

Golfgal

Tiger to be back in the hunt
Staff Report
Gulf News
28 Nov 2007

Dubai World No 1 Tiger Woods has confirmed his return to the Dubai Desert Classic, to be held at the Emirates Golf Club from January 29 to February 3. The 2006 Classic champion is still working out his 2008 schedule, but has already committed to play…read more…

Why $1m is not enough to get the world’s best out of bed
Robert Lusetich Indian Wells
The Australian
27 Nov 2007

ON one benign hole at a pretty resort course in the California desert yesterday, Stephen Ames won almost three times the money that Australian Masters champion Aaron Baddeley earned after toiling through 76 holes at Huntingdale. ‘‘ It’s not quite the… read more…