Superb Woods continues to set new targets

With the advent of lucrative world championship events, money records were certain to fall to players of the undoubted quality of Tiger Woods. So it will surprise no-one that victory in the NEC Invitational on Sunday has brought his earnings to a staggering $4,266,585 for the season so far.

He will find it a lot more difficult, however, to achieve the same sort of dominance in actual tournament wins. As it is, his fifth victory of the season has done no more than match the success of Nick Price in 1994, when the Zimbabwean won five times in the US, along with a British Open triumph at Turnberry.

With his victory in the Deutsche Bank Open last May, Woods has also gained six tournament wins so far this year. But he has some way to go before rivalling the eight US victories by Johnny Miller in 1974. And the all-time records are more formidable still. The most tournament victories in a calendar year were achieved by Byron Nelson who won 18 times in 1945, including 11 in a row. Ben Hogan comes next with 13 in 1946; then Sam Snead (11 in 1950); Paul Runyon (nine in 1933) and six players, including Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen, have emulated Miller's achievement of eight wins.

Incidentally, Jack Nicklaus, who remains second only to Sam Snead (81) with 70 wins on the USPGA regular tour, has a personal best of seven wins in a single season. But he did it twice, in successive years. In 1972 be won the Bing Crosby, Doral, US Masters, US Open, Westchester, Matchplay and Walt Disney. Then the following year he captured the Bing Crosby, New Orleans, Tournament of Champions, Atlanta, USPGA Championship, Ohio Kings Island and the Walt Disney.

Meanwhile, there has been much wringing of hands over the performances of the Europeans at Firestone, where Sergio Garcia was their highest finisher in a share of seventh place. Indeed Padraig Harrington, tied 12th, was the only other European in the top 20.

In terms of confidence-building for the Ryder Cup, however, last weekend's event was of no great significance. Very little has changed for either side since the USPGA Championship at Medinah, on August 12th to 15th.

When the US Ryder Cup team was announced on the Monday after Woods's superb victory, it was pointed out that the 12 American players in the line-up for Brookline had won a total of 12 tournaments this year. But the problem was that those victories were achieved by only four players - Woods (5 - 4 in the US), David Duval (4), Payne Stewart (2) and Jeff Maggert (1).

Now, two tournaments later, the eight non-winners on the US team remain that way, given that the Sprint International was captured by non Ryder Cup player David Toms.

From a European perspective, however, winning has been spread far more evenly throughout the team. Granted, Colin Montgomerie stands supreme with five victories this season, but he is joined as a winner by Paul Lawrie (2, including the British Open) Lee Westwood (2), JoseMaria Olazabal (US Masters), Darren Clarke, Garcia, Jesper Parnevik, Jarmo Sandelin and Miguel Angel Jimenez. That's nine in all.

Which means that only three members of Europe's line-up - Harrington, Coltart and Jean Van de Velde - have not had tournament victories so far this year. But Harrington can look to strong recent form in his runner-up placings in the West of Ireland Classic and the crucial, BMW International, while Van de Velde was a very notable runner-up with Justin Leonard in the British Open.

Meanwhile, Woods continues to produce stunning form wherever he plays. From 18 official USPGA Tour events this year, including the British Open, he has made every cut. The closest he came to failure was in the Bay Hill Invitational when he scraped through on 146 for an eventual share of 56th place and in the recent Sprint International in which he missed the third-round cut to be consigned to a share of 37th place.

From those 18 starts, he had 13 top-10 finishes, including five firsts, in the Buick Invitational, Memorial Tournament, Western Open, USPGA Championship and the NRC Invitational. Then there was his share of second place behind Ernie Els in the Nissan Open and third-place finishes in the Phoenix Open and the US Open.

His performances in the four "majors" were: US Masters - tied 18th; US Open - tied third; British Open - tied seventh; USPGA - winner.

Woods's US scoring average for the year to date is 69.83, which is hardly surprising, given that he has had 27 rounds in the sixties. Yet it's ironic that the only tournament in which he broke 70 in all four rounds, was in the Deutsche Bank Open in Heidelberg.

There, he carded 69,68,68,68 for a 15-under-par total of 273 and a three-stroke win over Retief Goosen. And a £200,000 top prize on that occasion converts roughly to $320,000 , bringing his season's earnings past $4.6 million. Mind you, it is necessary in his case, to emphasise that this is from tournaments alone: indeed those figures would be positively dwarfed by his income from endorsements.

So, is he worth it? Television viewing audiences in the US tend to confirm that he most certainly is. And where sponsorship is concerned, that happens to be the most important criterion.

On the European Tour, this week's action is in the Stg £900,000 Canon European Masters at the delightful Crans-sur-Sierre. Darren Clarke, who finished a lowly 36th of the 41 starters at Firestone, heads the Irish challenge which also includes Philip Walton, Eamonn Darcy, Des Smyth and John McHenry.

Germany's Sven Struver is defending the title against a quality field in which Westwood looks to be the player to beat, given that the all conquering Monty is taking a well-earned break.

The top-10 in the US money list are (US unless stated): 1 Tiger Woods $4,66,585; 2 David Duval $3,471,206; 3 Payne Stewart $1,974,617; 4 Vijay Singh (Fiji) $1,961,750; 5 Jeff Maggert $1,861,112; 6 Davis Love III $1,771,728; 7 Justin Leonard $1,622,634; 8 Chris Perry $1,602,540; 9 Steve Pate $1,590,631; 10 Carlos Franco (Paraguay) $1,562,884.