Readers can insert their own joke here regarding where half of that money is going now.
Trivia question
Phil Mickelson has two career PGA Tour victories in starts between the U.S. Open and the Open Championship. Can you name them? (Answer below)It's no coincidence that Woods' career arc mirrored that of the PGA Tour's growth in purses and annual revenues. With Tiger reaching the $100 million milestone, we at Numbers Game would like to offer some perspective on the difference Woods has helped make in the bank accounts of touring pros over the past 15 or so years.
This isn't to say Woods is the lone reason the sport's purses have exploded, but it would be ridiculous to think he hasn't played a large role in the sport's financial expansion. Every professional player in the world -- and their accountants -- should be grateful for this growth.
The PGA Tour is in West Virginia this week for The Greenbrier Classic. The event features a strong field this year, with 13 different major champions in the mix. "Three on the tee" takes a glance at a trio of those players teeing it up this week at the Old White Course:
Tiger Woods: While we're on the subject of Woods, only Sam Snead stands between him and the PGA Tour's all-time victory record. Tiger stands at 74, eight shy of Snead's record total of 82. For what it's worth, Snead was about seven years older than Woods was at the time of PGA Tour win No. 74.
Tiger makes his debut at The Greenbrier this week, a resort where Snead once held the title of emeritus pro. Recent history says not to bet on Tiger making it two victories in two weeks, though. Woods has not won in his first career start at an active PGA Tour event since 1999.
Much has been made -- and for good reason -- about the drastic improvement Woods has made in his ball-striking in 2012 (his driving accuracy rank is up nearly 140 positions over last year). Don't discount Tiger's better putting, though. Woods is No. 4 on the PGA Tour this year in putts made of 10 feet or shorter (89.8 percent). Tiger would have been T-118th and T-84th in 2010 and 2011, respectively, had he played enough rounds to qualify.
Webb Simpson: The U.S. Open champion held a share of the 36-hole lead in this event last year before winding up tied for ninth. He missed the cut here in 2010, but it's hard to even consider that version of the Old White the same course as the 2011 version. Sixteen holes underwent changes after the birdie barrage two years ago that featured Stuart Appleby carding a 59 to win.
Simpson leads the Tour this year in birdie average and is fifth in birdie-or-better conversion percentage. Five of Simpson's past six rounds have been sub-70 (that, of course, includes Saturday and Sunday at the U.S. Open), but he ranked No. 58 at the Travelers Championship in strokes gained -- putting. If Simpson can get a few more putts to fall (he missed nine shorter than 10 feet in the last three rounds in Connecticut), he should be in contention this week.
Trivia answer
Question: Phil Mickelson has two career PGA Tour victories in starts between the U.S. Open and the Open Championship. Can you name them?
Answer: In 2001 and 2002 at the Greater Hartford Open (now the Travelers Championship).
Lefty missed the cut at The Greenbrier last year by two shots and this week will be making his first start since the U.S. Open. A hopefully refreshed Phil will look to snap a streak of five straight rounds over par on Thursday. Mickelson has not had a streak of six rounds worse than par on the PGA Tour since 2009.
Justin Ray is a senior researcher with ESPN Stats & Information. He has contributed to ESPN's golf coverage since joining the network out of college in 2008. He is based in Austin, Texas, with the Longhorn Network. Send comments and suggestions to Justin.Ray@espn.com.
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Michael Collins has been writing for ESPN.com since yesterday. He started out as a stand up comedian and fell into PGA Tour golf and caddying completely by accident in 1998.
He started looping for fun in 1999 but by 2003 had decided to make it a full time gig. He won the Nationwide Tour Championship with Chris Couch in 2003 and was on the bag for Kevin Streelman when they captured the inaugural Kodak Challenge in 2009.
Michael has never won an award for his writing, probably because he failed high school English and still types with his index fingers. But he's smart, funny, and most importantly knows the game/players/caddies and what they go through on a week-to-week basis and brings a caddie perspective that's different than anything you've ever seen when it comes to golf coverage.
Farrell Evans grew up in Forsyth, Ga., 60 miles south of Atlanta, where he learned the game at the Forsyth Golf Club, an 18-hole public course. After high school, he played on the golf team at Florida A&M University and interned with the PGA Tour at the TPC at Sawgrass.
Before joining ESPN.com in August 2011, he was a golf writer for nine years at Sports Illustrated. He currently lives in Harlem and can be contacted at evans.espn@gmail.com.
Bob Harig is a golf writer for ESPN.com and has been covering the game for more than 20 years, first at the St. Petersburg Times and for the last four years at ESPN.com. He began contributing to ESPN.com in 1997.
Harig is a native of Barrington, Ill., where he got his first exposure to golf as a caddie at Inverness Golf Club, where he earned an Evans Scholarship to attend Indiana University. He graduated with degrees in journalism and history.
Harig lives in Florida and can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com
Kevin Maguire is the senior golf editor for ESPN.com and covered his first PGA Tour event in 1994 while at American University in Washington, D.C. He played collegiately for the Eagles and graduated with a degree in print journalism.
Maguire grew up in the Philadelphia, Pa. area and now resides outside of Hartford, Conn. He has been with ESPN since February, 2007 and can be reached at Kevin.Maguire@espn.com.
Justin Ray is a senior researcher with ESPN Stats and Information. He has contributed to ESPN's golf coverage since joining the network out of college in 2008. He is based in Austin, Texas with the new Longhorn Network.
He can be contacted at Justin.Ray@espn.com.
You must be signed in to post a comment