Tiger Woods becomes first to top $100 million in PGA earnings

Tiger Woods hits off the 11th tee during the first round of the Deutsche Bank Championship golf tournament at TPC Boston in Norton, Mass., Friday, Aug. 31, 2012.

/ AP Photo/Stew Milne

(CBS News) As recently as last year, much was written about Tiger Woods' fall - not only from the top of the golf world but also from the ranks of the planet's richest athletes.

With sponsors (and his wife) bailing on him, Tiger's endorsements were shrinking and so was his bank account. Allegedly.

Well, "dwindling income" is all relative. Tiger's game has improved and so has his financial outlook. With his third-place finish at the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday, Woods' earned $544,000 to push his career total to $100,350,700. That makes him the first $100 million man on the PGA Tour.

"The purse increase helps," Woods said after finishing two strokes behind winner Rory McIlroy in the second week of the four-tournament FedEx Cup playoff. "I won fewer tournaments than Sam Snead has, but obviously he was in a different era. It's just that we happened to time it up right and happened to play well when the purses really had a nice spike up."

According to the Associated Press, Snead (the career leader with 82 PGA Tour victories) earned just $620,126 in a career that started in 1937. His biggest prize was $28,000 for a second-place finish in Milwaukee in 1968, and for most of his prime he played in tournaments with a total purse — that's all the payouts combined — of less than $100,000.

Woods has won 74 tournaments, second all-time, including 38 times with a first prize of $1 million or more. His winnings come out to an average of $362,276.89 for each of his 277 career starts.

Woods himself is responsible for the increase in purses. After he turned pro, crowds swelled at tournaments and the TV audience for golf spiked. The "Tiger effect" was simple: Prize money soared on the PGA Tour.

"It was nice to have a nice start to my career, and I won some majors early," he said. "I think we got some interest in the game of golf. A lot more youth, that's for sure."

Next on the earnings list behind Woods? Phil Mickelson, who is more than $30 million behind at $66,805,498.

[Scimajor]

"To play a silly game that means nothing."

I couldn't bring myself to even watch the Olympics. Wow a guy ran the 100m in less than 10 seconds and won by a completely insignificant amount of time. Yawn.

Still, I do love the play and watch Golf. I just don't agree that people should make millions from doing it.

[Scimajor]

As much as I think that $100 million is an insane amount of money to win playing a game, at least with golf you actually have to play well and win to make that kind of money. If you play poorly at a tournament it's likely that a golfer will end up in the hole (i.e. his/her expenses are more than their winnings). In football/basketball/hockey/baseball the players on a team still get their salary even if they lose every single game. What a deal! All you have to do is show up and huge amounts of money is deposited into your account!

Also, Floyd Mayweather made $85 million in ONE season (not including endorsements). I'd bet that if PGA earnings were totaled for every single golfer who has ever played the game professionally were added up it wouldn't total the salary for a single NFL team for a single year.

That being said, I find it odd that the people I would like my sons to look up to as role models (e.g. The engineers at NASA ), get paid meager salaries at best. They and people like them are the true superstars of our society.

Yes, salaries in sports are completely out of control. That's true even for golf.

[Rejco100]

When you sell your soul to Satan...God allows Satan to grant ANY WISH IMAGINABLE; too bad people forget Satan NEVER keeps his part of the deal...NEVER!

[enough-already]

Here we go, the invisible guy in the sky runs everything. OK. Whatever.

[Scimajor]

errrr...... I like cheese. See? I can post random nonsense too.

[formerlyluvnut]

For playing a GAME. GOLF no less.

[bobnjersey]

[For playing a GAME]
-----------------------
just an activity ... with a specific goal ... bounded by some rules.

isn't everything a game ... relationships ... business ... life?

[enough-already]

I agree with you, ridiculous salaries for these jocks, but Tiger has earned his over the span of his entire career. Look at the outrageous salaries of some of the baseball players these days. 27,28 million dollars per YEAR! Now that's enough to make me throw up. To play a silly game that means nothing. Nothing. Disgraceful.