The greatness of Tiger Woods

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The PGA Tour closed out its season last weekend and a look at the final money leaders for 2008 reinforces how great Tiger Woods is compared with every other pro.

Woods played in only six tournaments this year before having leg surgery -- he won four events, including the U.S. Open, he finished second in the Masters and was fifth in his other tournament. Despite this abbreviated schedule, Woods was second on the money list at $5.78 million.

But another indicator of how dominant he is emerges when you compare how the rest of the top 10 players on the money list fared in tournaments with Woods in the field. The rest of the top 10 won a combined 15 tournaments in 2008 -- but none were in events that Woods competed in. Woods’ absence also amounted to a welfare plan in money winnings for the rest of the PGA Tour.

Here are the final rankings:

Money Ranking; Player; Earnings; Percentage of money won in events with Tiger Woods.

1. Vijay Singh $6.60 million 19.5%

3. Phil Mickelson $5.19 million 14.6%

4. Sergio Garcia $4.86 million 6.1%

5. Kenny Perry $4.66 million 5.4%

6. Anthony Kim $4.66 million 1.5%

7. Camilo Villegas $4.42 million 3.6%

8. Padraig Harrington $4.31 million 7.4%

9. Stewart Cink $3.98 million 43.6%

10. Justin Leonard $3.94 million 21.8%

-- Barry Stavro