The game's wealthiest prepare to rake it in

A 400-acre luxury resort which was once a Catholic seminary will be home this week for Tiger Woods as he defends the $5 million WGC/NEC Invitational here at Firestone. Indeed, no less a personage than His Holiness the Pope signed the deed of sale to the developer who, among other things, built a presidential suite which might have been designed with the world's number one in mind.

For the launch of this World Golf Championship event last year, there was a select field of 41. A change in the selection process, however, added to the death of Payne Stewart and the withdrawal yesterday of David Duval because of continuing back problems, has meant a reduction to 38 this week. But the prize money remains the same, so the champion will again receive $1 million.

When Woods won the title last year, he shot a 10-under par 270, which reflects the strength of Firestone's 7,139-yard South Course, one of the longest par 70s in the world. The front nine is especially punishing, with four par fours of 450 yards or longer.

There is also considerable length in the homeward journey, notably in the par-five, 625-yard 16th. Most of which can be blamed on the recently-deceased Robert Trent Jones, who redesigned the course in 1959 when he proclaimed that a par at the 16th would be a very good score.

Meanwhile, the event has become highly controversial even before a ball has been struck, largely because of the selection process. Whereas the US confine selection to their last Ryder Cup and current President's Cup teams, and the rest of the world use the International line-up for the President's Cup, Europe decided to nominate the top 12 Europeans in the Order of Merit at the end of the recent British Masters.

The upshot has been the non-qualification of such notable players as Jesper Parnevik (10th in the current world rankings), Sergio Garcia (15th) and Paul Lawrie (54th). As a member of last year's European Ryder Cup team, Jean Van de Velde was also rather miffed, despite his current world ranking of 92nd .

Ireland has benefited from the new arrangement in the presence of Paul McGinley alongside Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington, who played last year.

Meanwhile, the non-European line-up has been completed by the nominated wild cards in the President's Cup teams: Loren Roberts and Paul Azinger for the US and Australian Robert Allenby. The other International wild card, Steve Elkington, was already unavailable because of recent hip surgery.

What it all boils down to is that with those few exceptions, the event is effectively offering an opportunity for rich players to become richer. And to ensure that things work out that way, there is no cut and the minimum, guaranteed return is $30,000 for 38th place.

All of which will be of no concern to Colin Montgomerie, whose career earnings in Europe passed u £10 million sterling earlier this year. But the Scot expressed fears for the future of the European Ryder Cup team with several key players such as Jose-Maria Olazabal, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Thomas Bjorn contemplating a future on the US Tour, starting next season.

"Our Ryder Cup position could be dramatically hurt by this," he said yesterday. "With only two wild cards picks, it would appear that a few good players are going to be left out. I feel sorry for Sam Torrance (next year's Ryder Cup captain) whose hands are obviously tied by the present system."

On an entirely different matter, Montgomerie went on to express deep satisfaction at crowd reaction to him at Valhalla last week. And he is happy to play his part in achieving what would clearly be a beneficial working arrangement for him.

"Losing that bit of weight has made me feel better about myself. It has helped me to walk taller and smile a bit more."

He concluded: "I'm making a conscious effort to project a better image on the course, and my relationship with the crowd at Valhalla was a win in itself."