ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tiger Woods surpassed $40 million in career earnings yesterday by pocketing $275,000 at the Mercedes Championships.
Tiger Woods becomes
PGA Tour’s $40-million
man
KAPALUA, Maui >> Tiger Woods may not have won this week's $5.3 million Mercedes Championships, but finishing tied for fourth sent him across a historic milestone.
The $275,000 paycheck he earned yesterday gives him $40,052,265 in career earnings entering his ninth year on the PGA Tour. He has played in 160 tour events, winning 39.
"I love inflation," Woods said.
To get an idea just how much money that is, Arnold Palmer earned $1.86 million in 730 events on tour, while Jack Nicklaus pocketed $5.7 million in 587 tournaments. Nicklaus said in his first tournament at the Los Angeles Open, he made $33.33. Woods earned nearly $800,000 his first year on tour.
Not that making $40 million put Woods in a good mood. Finishing seven shots off the pace set by Stuart Appleby garnered most of his attention. The world's No. 1 player made too many errors to be a serious threat this week.
"I just made too many mistakes early on in the first couple of days and put myself too far behind," Woods said. "The wind was blowing all over the place. It was tough to get anything going today."
Woods will skip the Sony Open in Hawaii and won't be back on tour until Feb. 9 to defend his title at the Buick Invitational in San Diego. This is the sixth straight year since the Mercedes Championships moved to Maui that he is opting not to play on Oahu. He has said in the past that he hopes to play every event on tour sometime during his career.
International flavor: Four of the top five finishers at this week's event grew up in a foreign land. Appleby calls Australia his spiritual home, although he spends more time in Orlando, Fla. Second-place finisher Vijay Singh is from Lautoka, Fiji, but currently lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
Darren Clarke took third with a final-round 70 to finish five shots behind Appleby. He was born in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, but currently resides in Pinnacle Point, South Africa.
Retief Goosen, who tied for fourth with Woods, was born in South Africa, but has three residences across the globe. One is in Pietersburg, South Africa, a second is in South Ascot, England, and a third is in Orlando.
Old boys network: There were 11 40-somethings teeing it up with the young lions at this week's winners-only event. The best finish among that group was Singh at second. Kirk Triplett finished sixth, Scott Hoch eighth, Kenny Perry, Tommy Armour III and Peter Jacobson tied for 15th, Fred Couples and J.L. Lewis tied for 21st, Frank Lickliter II and John Huston placed 26th and Craig Stadler tied for 28th.
Stadler will come over to Oahu this week to play in the Sony Open and then head off to the Big Island the following week for the MasterCard Championship, the winners-only event on the Champions Tour for seniors. Amazingly, 33 percent of the field was 40 or older. Stadler was the graybeard at 50.
Toms earns some cash: David Toms was the only player who won on the PGA Tour in 2003 not able to play in this week's Mercedes. Two years ago, he lost here in a playoff with Sergio Garcia. He won twice last year, but couldn't come to Maui because of a wrist injury.
Still, he earned $65,000 for qualifying to play here, just $1,000 less than British Open champ Ben Curtis, who finished last with a four-day total of 297. An 80 during the second round proved to be Curtis' undoing.
Tough opening act: The par-4 473-yard first hole proved to be the most difficult this week with a scoring average of 4.292. You can thank the prevailing Kona winds for that. There were only seven birdies for the week and a whopping 27 bogeys, six double bogeys and one triple.
The par-3 second was the second-hardest hole with an average of 3.267. If the players could get through there even par, they were happy. The par-5 ninth was the easiest, which isn't the case when the winds are kicking up. The scoring average was 4.350. There were three eagles, 75 birdies and only three bogeys in 120 rounds of golf. The par-5 18th was the second-easiest at 4.500. There were 5 eagles and 62 bogeys for the longest hole on tour at 663 yards.
