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They’re in a World of Their Own

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Times Staff Writer

The best way to measure success on the PGA Tour is by how many times you win, but money is a player’s best friend -- and always will be -- because how much money you win determines whether you can still play the next year.

It’s called finishing in the top 125 on the money list. Of course, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh don’t have to worry about that.

Trying to keep track of all the dough they’re raking in is an entirely different problem.

When Woods won the World Golf Championship-NEC Invitational on Sunday, Singh tied for third, which put them in exclusive company -- their own. They have each earned more than $7 million this year, and that’s the first time that has happened on the PGA Tour.

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Woods has $8.6 million, Singh $7.3 million.

Those $7.5-million WGC events have been kind to Woods, who has won 10 of the 20 he has played and has earned $12 million playing them. If you counted only his winnings from the WGC tournaments, Woods would be 45th on the PGA Tour’s career money list.

Believe it or not, his $1.3-million check at Firestone was the highest of Woods’ career. And for his pro career, now in its ninth full year, Woods has made $53,735,410.

Woods has won 45 times in 181 PGA Tour events, meaning he has won 24.86% of the tournaments he has entered.

Woods is going to the bullpen for some help starting with the Presidents Cup next month, getting Darren Clarke’s caddie, Bill Foster, to carry his bag. Foster, who also has worked with Thomas Bjorn, is replacing Woods’ regular caddie Steve Williams, whose fiancee is due to give birth soon back home in New Zealand.

Williams will be with Woods at the Deutsche Bank next week in Boston and won’t return until the American Express at Harding Park in San Francisco in early October.

Oh, yes, that’s another WGC event.

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In 36 PGA Tour events this year, only one player has led the tournament in driving distance and won the tournament: Woods at the British Open.

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From the It’s-Getting-Monotonous-Department, Singh has 51 top-10 finishes since the start of 2003, the most in any three-year span since Raymond Floyd had 52 from 1981-83.

There are hints that the USGA is monitoring what happens at Merion Golf Club during this week’s U.S. Amateur, with an eye on perhaps holding a U.S. Open there. Considered short (6,846) and without much room for all the trappings of an Open, Merion may be a longshot, but it has history -- Bobby Jones completed his Grand Slam there in 1930 and Ben Hogan’s famous one-iron shot in the 1950 U.S. Open happened there.

Merion hasn’t played host to a U.S. Open since 1981, and the Open is tied up through 2012.

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It’s back to work this week for Annika Sorenstam, who hasn’t played an LPGA Tour event since July, when she tied for fifth at the British Open.

Sorenstam, who has won six times this year and leads the LPGA in scoring (69.48) and in earnings ($1.72 million), is playing the Wendy’s Championship for Children at Tartan Fields Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.

Birdie Kim, remember her? She came from nowhere to hole a bunker shot and win the U.S. Open with a birdie? It’s Birdie’s 24th birthday Friday.

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If Craig Stadler can do it, why can’t Eduardo Romero? Maybe because it’s not that easy, but Romero, of Argentina, has a chance to match Stadler’s feat of winning on the regular tour and the senior tour in one year.

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Romero, 51, won the Travis Perkins Senior Masters by eight shots Sunday at Wentworth in England and plays the European Tour’s BMW International Open in Germany this week.

Stadler won three Champions Tour events, plus the B.C. Open on the PGA Tour in 2003 when he was 50.

Romero has high hopes: “It would be beautiful.”

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Meanwhile, Colin Montgomerie is trying to prove that his second at St. Andrews during the British Open was no fluke. After he closed with back-to-back 68s over the weekend at the NEC Invitational, he wound up ninth and moved to 22nd in the world golf rankings.

Montgomerie, 42, who began the year ranked 83rd, has a goal of reaching the top 10. A seven-time leading money winner on the European Tour, Montgomerie is third with $1.89 million, behind Michael Campbell and Retief Goosen. Montgomerie is off this week and next, then plays six weeks in a row.

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Stuart Appleby tied for ninth at the NEC and made $94,400, but he could have made about $100,000 more if he had avoided a two-shot penalty in the last round. The problem came on the 13th hole when he got a free drop from a cart path. Appleby dropped the ball in the rough, it bounced back on the cart path and caddie Joe Damiano picked up the ball.

Appleby didn’t see it, but a rules official did and told him that Damiano scooped up the ball before it stopped rolling. That’s two shots.

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Appleby didn’t pay Damiano for the week.

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The quote of the week is from Phil Mickelson, who finished at 10 over at Firestone, one week after winning the PGA Championship.

Said Mickelson: “I think I picked the right tournament to play my better golf.”

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Al Joyner, Kermit Alexander, Dr. Sammy Lee, Chad Everett, Ed Ratleff, Dwight Stones, Efren Herrera and Dick Bass are among those expected to play in the San Clemente Sunrise Rotary Club tournament Monday at Talega Golf Course in San Clemente. James Worthy is tournament host. The event benefits Laura’s House, a shelter for victims of domestic violence. Details: (760) 632-7770.

The seventh Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. tournament will be played Sept. 12 at Robinson Ranch Golf Course in Santa Clarita. The event benefits the association, which encourages economic vitality of the San Fernando Valley region. Details: (818) 817-0545.

The seventh Palos Verdes Peninsula Lions Club “Swing fore Sight” charity tournament will be played Sept. 30 at Los Verdes Golf & Country Club in Rancho Palos Verdes. The event benefits Lions Club charities. Details: (866) 200-5953.

Members of Shady Canyon Golf Club in Irvine donated 30 sets of clubs and 3,000 balls to the First Service Group BSSG 1 Marines at Camp Pendleton.

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