Bunker Mentality

Share the wealth, Tiger

Thu Nov 12 08:39AM

The Tiger Woods roadshow has rolled into Australia amid much fanfare, but he's not there to catch a bit of sun in sweltering Melbourne.

He arrived in a private jet and may well need a bigger one for the return to Florida, to carry him and the reported $3 million he is being paid for appearing at the Australian Masters.

The state of Victoria has stumped up a portion of the cash and justified it by saying the investment has paid for itself by the huge crowds that are flocking to Kingston Heath to get a glimpse of the most famous sportsman on the planet.

Woods's appearance fee dwarfs the entire purse for the Australia Masters, which stands at $1.5m, and is a quite staggering amount of money to pay just one man.

Appearance fees were commonplace in the 1990s, with Greg Norman setting the bar by demanding fuel for his private jet on top of his fee, but the US PGA outlawed the practice claiming it damaged the integrity of the game.

Henry Hughes, the Tour's executive vice president and CEO of The Players, said in 2001: "We don't have any control over appearance fees. On the PGA Tour, players are rewarded for their performance. Unfortunately, that isn't consistent around the world. We think it should be, but we can only encourage the other tours."

So what is Woods's take on the subject?

"I know there's some controversy behind it, but I'm really looking forward to getting down there," he said earlier in the year. "I've always wanted to play more in the Aussie Sand Belt because that is my favourite area to play. Most of the guys get appearance fees to play around the world. This (the PGA Tour) is the only place that doesn't have appearance fees."

It's a fairy sensible attitude to adopt from someone who is being paid vast sums of money just to turn up, but it's not so positive for the players who are further down the ladder.

No sane person would turn down $3 million, but does Woods really need the money? The answer is no. In Forbes' most recent Rich List, it was claimed that Woods became the first sports star to pass the $1 billion mark for career earnings.

On top of his on-course earnings, Woods reportedly rakes in £62m per year from sponsorship, advertising and endorsements. $3 million is an awful lot of money but it is chump change to someone of Woods's vast wealth.

The issue of appearance fees will rumble on until there is a uniform set of rules the world over, but it would be a novel approach if Woods opted to nip the furore in the bud by opting to play for expenses alone, which would be pretty high given he travels in a private jet, and donate the rest of the appearance money to the state of Victoria which was ravaged by terrible bushfires earlier in the year.

Comments1 - 4 of 4

Professional golfers should not receive appearance money. If they want to play a tournament then they should compete and the playing field should be the same for all players. Why should a tremendously wealthy man like Tiger receive such a huge sum of money just to turn up? It just proves that we like in a global society that is intensely greedy and self centred.
From roger.williams20 on Thu Nov 12 10:38AM
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It is called free market. People are free to pay whatever they think something is worth. No one is being forced to pay or watch. If the state thinks the investment is worth it, who are we the outsiders to question them?. The journalist who wrote this article is free to express his/her opinion, just like the state is free to do what is in their best interest.
From pkfosu on Thu Nov 12 04:44PM
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Tiger is worth every penny of it . If you want people to flock to your tournament hes HAS to BE there. If not you have a second rate event.
And by the way his private jet is a Gulfstream 550 he just bought from Netjet.
From robertboyer2002 on Thu Nov 12 07:50PM
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Nice article. Woods is a very selfish man and the state of Victoria could do with the money - go Bunker!
From garyplatt7 on Tue Nov 17 10:58PM
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