The Last Word
When $1.67 million is up for grabs in a 12-man field and the number sending regrets is greater than those attending, you know something is wrong.
By KEN FIDLIN -- Toronto Sun
It's hard for an average guy not to be impressed by the math. Twelve men will tee it up this week in England in the World Match Play Championships at Wentworth Golf Club, just outside London. Twelve players looking to win a first prize of $1.67 million US. You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to like those odds.
But apparently, many of the guys who actually qualify for this thing are just too well off for their own good.
We will include Tiger Woods, Davis Love III, Kenny Perry, Jim Furyk, David Toms and Phil Mickelson in that extraordinary group. All of them sent their regrets.
Mike Weir also has all the dough he needs, and then some, but he's going anyway. Weir never has been shy about travelling where the best golf is, no matter the inconvenience.
Years ago, when money was tight, he and wife Bricia used to put their belongings in storage in the winters when they'd head off to winter tours in Australia and the Far East. And don't forget, when he first went to the British Open, he travelled to Carnoustie on spec, hoping to qualify, which he did.
With a Masters title and nearly $5 million in the bank this year, he's more than willing to go to England for what could very well be one 36-hole match.
Be assured, though, that this isn't much of a gamble. Weir, as the No. 2 seed, gets a bye into the quarter-finals where the losers all get $140,000, so that's the least amount he can earn.
He'll tee it up on Friday in a 36-hole match against either Thomas Bjorn, the Dane who gave away the British Open this year, or Len Mattiace, whom Weir beat in the playoff at the Masters. If he wins that one, he needs only two more victories on Saturday and Sunday to collect the big prize.
Weir has always been a fall harvest kind of guy, squirrelling away big gobs of cash just before the chill winter winds arrive.
He has had some of his greatest successes after the leaves begin to turn and while that pattern changed rather dramatically this season, if he puts together a stretch of typical fall performances, he could make himself a sizable fortune before the end of the year.
In addition to this weekend's potential bonanza, there is the 30-man, $6-million Tour Championship and the 12-man, $5-million Target World Challenge. That doesn't even include the final jackpot of the year, the $1-million PGA Grand Slam of golf in Hawaii, Dec. 15-17, featuring the four major winners.
This is the payoff for winning a major. Only a handful of players get access to these events and their gigantic purses.
For years, the World Match Play Championship was an event orchestrated by Mark McCormack, the IMG impresario who carefully constructed the field each year to include personality as well as talent. And, if some of the personalities happened to be IMG clients, wow, what a coincidence.
But with HSBC now the primary sponsor and thus, the folks who call the tune, it was decided a more formalized process would be necessary. By decree, the World No. 1 and the defending champion will be joined by the 10 players who performed best in the year's major championships. That's all fine and dandy as long as the qualifiers give a flying fiddoo about the tournament.
In explaining why he wasn't going to join in the festivities, Davis Love III made it clear where his loyalties lie.
"I would rather get in my truck and drive to Greensboro than fly overseas to play. I like to be at home and I don't like travelling," Love said. "I don't like going on big, long trips. I don't have to chase the money."
And therein lies the key. The big names don't need to chase the money.
For years, the regular PGA Tour events unlucky enough to have dates at the end of the year have known this. By the time autumn comes around, most of the American tour stars have made their dough for the year and, with the majors all exhausted, they wind it down.
If, one day, the pro golf bubble bursts you have to wonder if the rupture won't have its roots in this issue. When a potential $1.67-million payday doesn't get their attention, then these guys are just too comfortable for their own good.
