Shockingly, Big Money Meets Its Match

Wanted: U.S. tour pros ... any U.S. tour pros ... to enter an event with the biggest winner’s check in any official tournament this year.

Response: No thanks.

It sounds sort of cold, but we learned this week that’s what is happening in a couple of weeks, even though there’s $1.8 million at stake for the winner of the HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth Club in Surrey, England. No U.S. players who qualified with their play in majors are going to show, but they have their reasons.

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Chris DiMarco, Fred Couples and Davis Love III are all going to be elsewhere in two weeks and not at Wentworth, where the only player ranked in the top 10 who will show up is No. 5 Retief Goosen.

The Wentworth tournament is the week before the Presidents Cup at Lake Manassas, Va., and Woods typically doesn’t play the week before a tough tournament.

Ernie Els is the defending champion, but he’s sidelined by knee surgery.

Mickelson, DiMarco, Couples and second-ranked Vijay Singh are playing in a competing event, the PGA Tour’s 84 Lumber Classic at Farmington, Pa., where Singh is the defending champion.

The Wentworth tournament counts on the European Tour and in the rankings, but top U.S. players aren’t looking for ranking points and don’t care about supporting the European Tour, especially with the Presidents Cup next.

Does a trip to England for a roll-the-dice match-play tournament really prepare you for something like the Presidents Cup, a playing responsibility that’s either loved or hated but never ignored?

Goosen, Trevor Immelman, Mark Hensby, Tim Clark, Michael Campbell and Angel Cabrera are playing Wentworth and are also in the Presidents Cup, but except for Hensby and Clark, they’re all European Tour members.

It’s increasingly clear that for the big names, hefty prize money isn’t that big a draw anymore. Time off, scheduling and big tournaments move the needle.

The World Match Play started in 1964, but at least for this year, it’s not a tournament you circled on your calendar.

Meanwhile, Singh’s schedule is up in the air after he withdrew Tuesday from the Deutsche Bank Championship, which begins today at Norton, Mass., where he is the defending champion.

Singh, who owns a reputation of being nearly indestructible because of the hours he spends on the driving range, experienced back spasms playing table tennis with his 15-year-old son at their home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

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Bulletin board material: If the European team in the Solheim Cup once taped Dottie Pepper’s face to a punching bag and took turns pounding it because of her outspoken comments on the event, what is going to happen to Paula Creamer?

Rookie Creamer made the U.S. team for the first time, then raised everybody’s eyebrows Sunday at a news conference.

“All I can say is that they better get ready, because they’re going to get beat,” she said. “I’m laying it down.”

The Solheim Cup is Sept. 9-11 at Crooked Stick Golf Club at Carmel, Ind.

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Besides playing host to the U.S. Amateur last week, Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., got a close look as a possible site for a U.S. Open. At 6,846 yards, the venerable club last held the U.S. Open in 1981 and is probably too short by modern standards -- and the next available Open is 2013 -- but USGA Executive Director David Fay said Merion isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

“The golf course definitely passed its test, but [for an Open] it’s everything outside the ropes, whether it can handle the number of spectators, the traffic, corporate commitments, things like that,” he said. “Ultimately, it will be judged by those standards.”

Translation: Merion, don’t count on it.

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What do Scott Hend, Brett Wetterich and Scott Gutschewski have in common? They’re three of the top four in driving distance this year -- Hend leads with an average drive of 318.9 yards -- and Woods is the other, ranked second. Plus, barring a late turnaround, they’re all on track to lose their PGA Tour cards ... except Woods, of course.

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The quote of the week is from Brad Faxon, 44, who became the first player on the PGA Tour in three years to make the cut on the number and then win the tournament, which is what Faxon did with a closing 61 at the Buick Championship, where a short putt did it in a playoff.

Said Faxon: “Three feet, just in the throw-up zone.”

Faxon had scheduled knee surgery for this month, which would have sidelined him for about six months. But now he has a free pass to the Mercedes Championships at Kapalua in January and, coupled with his 28th position on the money list, a shot at the Masters.

So is Faxon rethinking the surgery option?

“My wife says, ‘If we don’t go to Kapalua, I’m going to kill you,’ so what do you think?” he said.

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Woods is 138 under par in 17 tournaments this year, but Singh is first at 164 under in 24 tournaments.

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Jim McCabe of the Boston Globe conducted a cap-versus-visor survey with PGA Tour pros and found devotees of both, but he pointed out that John Daly goes hatless.

Said Daly: “Every time I wear a hat, I get huge headaches. I’ve tried, but I get the worst migraines with a hat on, especially in the heat.”

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Loren Roberts’ victory at the Jeld-Wen Tradition, a Champions Tour major, was his first on the over-50 circuit and came in his third start on the tour. Roberts didn’t win his first PGA Tour event until his 339th tournament.

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The sixth Project Amiga tournament will be Sept. 9 at California Country Club in Whittier. The event benefits at-risk youths and gang prevention programs. Details: (626) 401-1395.

The fifth H.O.M.E. celebrity tournament will be Sept. 19 at Braemar Country Club in Tarzana. The event benefits Home Ownership Made Easy, a nonprofit corporation that provides safe and affordable housing for low-income people and families with developmental disabilities. Details: (310) 258-4131.

The Blind Children’s Learning Center tournament will be Oct. 9 at Aliso Viejo Golf Club. Details: (714) 573-8888.

A limited number of daily and weekly tickets are on sale for the seventh Target World Challenge, where Woods will be host. Portions of the proceeds for the event, Dec. 8-11 at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, benefit the Tiger Woods Learning Center. Details: (714) 816-1806.