There’s Nothing Silly About All That Money

Just because the PGA Tour tournament schedule is complete, do not be fooled into thinking that the year is over -- not with $18.45 million at stake in nine so-called “silly season” events.

In the first place, there’s nothing silly about that much money, it’s just that the millions being passed out starting this week, at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf in Hawaii and the Merrill Lynch Skins Game in La Quinta, do not count toward official money winnings.

Of course, it still spends the same, which has always rung true for players such as, say, Fred Couples.

The two-time defending champion of the Skins Game, Couples is off and running this silly season, having already made $200,000 at the Franklin Templeton Shootout and $80,000 at the Wendy’s 3 Tour Challenge -- which was played last week but won’t be shown on ABC until next month.

The PGA Tour calls these off-season, made-for-TV exhibitions “Challenge Season” events.

It’s sometimes a challenge to keep up with them.

There is even a new one this year, the $750,000 Bard Capital Challenge, to be played Dec. 1-4 at the TPC at the Canyons in Las Vegas. It’s not going to be shown live, either, but will be taped for telecast Dec. 15 on the Golf Channel.

Fred Funk, John Daly, Nick Price, Zach Johnson, Scott Verplank, Mark Calcavecchia, Tim Herron and Rory Sabbatini are playing in that one.

For some reason, Couples is sitting it out, but he has had a busy moneymaking year already. In regular tournament play, the 46-year-old Couples made $1.8 million, the second-highest total of his 25-year pro career.

Standing in his way at Trilogy Golf Club is the formidable trio of Funk, Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam, competing with Couples for $1 million in prize money at the 23rd annual Skins Game.

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The news was good for David Duval last week in the Dunlop Phoenix tournament in Japan, or sort of, anyway. His ranking improved from 729th to 481st after he tied for seventh. That’s at least a start.

Duval, who was ranked No. 1 briefly in 1999, is 34 and will begin his 12th year on the PGA Tour in 2006. But unless he wins a tournament or finishes in the top 125 on the money list, his five-year primary exempt status on the PGA Tour, as a result of winning the 2001 British Open, ends at the end of next year.

Duval has other options for 2007: He could claim his status as being in the top 50 all-time money winners and could probably be exempt for 2008 if he remains in the top 25 on the all-time money list.

He made one cut in 20 tournaments this year -- a tie for 60th at the Texas Open -- and made $7,630. He has blamed his slump, which has lasted four years, on a variety of injuries to his back and wrist and shoulder and also a bout with vertigo.

Duval said if the season were just getting started now, he’d be heading in the right direction.

“I feel better and better about what I’m doing,” he said.

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Another tournament, another controversy about taking a drop, that’s the LPGA for you. This one didn’t involve Michelle Wie and a reporter for Sports Illustrated, but rather, superstar Sorenstam and 19-year-old superstar-in-training Paula Creamer.

Sorenstam hit a drive into a bunker on the edge of water at the ADT Championship and Creamer questioned her taking a drop, although Sorenstam asked for a ruling and got one that she was seeking, trying to figure out where the ball had crossed into hazard and plugged in a bunker. The fact that Creamer got in Sorenstam’s face is one thing, but here’s another: Sorenstam won the tournament, her 10th this year.

Creamer might be getting a lot of praise for standing up to Sorenstam, but it’s probably not the greatest strategy to even suggest she’s bending the rules and undeniably poor strategy to make her mad.

Sorenstam is much like Woods; the best way to deal with him has always been to avoid getting him riled.

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It’s November, but the 2006 European Tour schedule is underway, this week at the Volvo China Open. There are five 2006 European Tour events before January, none actually in Europe. In fact, the European Tour doesn’t have a tournament in Europe until March in Portugal and doesn’t have a tournament in Britain until May in England.

The Americans hope that what happened over the weekend at the WGC World Cup in Portugal isn’t any forecast of what might transpire at the Ryder Cup in September. The U.S. team of Stewart Cink and Zach Johnson tied for 17th, behind teams from India, Taiwan and Paraguay, but one shot ahead of Mardan Mamat and Chi-Bing Lam of Singapore.

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According to a survey of readers of SportsBusiness Daily and SportsBusiness Journal, the most effective commissioner or top executive of a professional league or organization is Paul Tagliabue of the NFL. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem is fifth, trailing David Stern of the NBA, David France of NASCAR and Don Garber of Major League Soccer, but ahead of David Baker of the Arena Football League and Bud Selig of Major League Baseball.

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David Foster of Talega Golf Club in San Clemente has been named the 32nd president of the Southern California PGA and Jamie Mulligan of Virginia Country Club in Long Beach has been chosen as the SCPGA’s pro of the year.

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At the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, Woods, Michael Campbell, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson revealed their dream foursomes. Woods: Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones; Campbell: Gene Simmons, Michael Jordan, Nicole Kidman; Singh: his son Qass, Jones, Walter Hagen; Mickelson: his children Amanda, Sophia and Evan.