CONTENTS



PREFACE (9-12)

Chapter-1: INTRODUCTION (13-38)

• History of golf
• Golf course
• Rules and regulations
• Equipment
• Stroke mechanics
• Scoring and handicapping
• Basic forms of golf
• Other forms of golf
• Professional Golf
• Golf instruction

Chapter-2: PROFESSIONAL GOLF TOURS (39-80)

• PGA Tour
• PGA European Tour
• Champions Tour
• LPGA Tours
• Asian Tour
• Japan Golf Tour
• Official World Golf Rankings
• World Golf Hall of Fame

Chapter-3: MEN’S MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIPS (81-108)

• Masters Tournament
• United States Open Championship
• The Open Championship
• PGA Championship

Chapter-4: WOMEN’S MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIPS (109-120)

• Kraft Nabisco Championship
• LPGA Championship
• United States Women's Open Championship
• Women's British Open

Chapter-5: SENIOR MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIPS (121-132)

• Senior PGA Championship
• Senior British Open Championship
• U.S. Senior Open
• The Tradition
• Senior Players Championship

Section-I: MEN CAREER MONEY LEADERS


Chapter-6: Tiger Woods (137-162)
Chapter-7: Vijay Singh (163-170)
Chapter-8: Phil Mickelson (171-180)
Chapter-9: Jim Furyk (181-192)
Chapter-10: Ernie Els (193-202)
Chapter-11: Davis Love III (203-212)
Chapter-12: David Toms (213-220)
Chapter-13: Kenny Perry (221-226)
Chapter-14: Justin Leonard (227-234)
Chapter-15: Stewart Cink (235-242)
Chapter-16: Steve Stricker (243-248)
Chapter-17: Mike Weir (249-254)
Chapter-18: Sergio Garcia (255-260)
Chapter-19: Scott Verplank (261-268)
Chapter-20: Retief Goosen (269-280)
Chapter-21: Stuart Appleby (281-288)
Chapter-22: Robert Allenby (289-296)
Chapter-23: Mark Calcavecchia (297-304)
Chapter-24: Geoff Ogilvy (305-312)
Chapter-25: K.J. Choi (313-320)
Chapter-26: Rory Sabbatini (321-328)
Chapter-27: Fred Couples (329-336)
Chapter-28: Adam Scott (337-344)
Chapter-29: Jerry Kelly (345-350)
Chapter-30: Chris DiMarco (351-358)
Chapter-31: Tom Lehman (359-368)
Chapter-32: Fred Funk (369-376)
Chapter-33: Nick Price (377-384)
Chapter-34: Zach Johnson (385-392)
Chapter-35: Charles Howell III (393-398)
Chapter-36: Padraig Harrington (399-404)
Chapter-37: Chad Campbell (405-412)
Chapter-38: Bob Estes (413-418)
Chapter-39: Billy Mayfair (419-422)
Chapter-40: Luke Donald (423-428)
Chapter-41: Stephen Ames (429-432)
Chapter-42: Scott Hoch (433-438)
Chapter-43: David Duval (439-444)
Chapter-44: Jeff Sluman (445-452)
Chapter-45: Brad Faxon (453-458)
Chapter-46: Steve Flesch (459-464)
Chapter-47: Tim Clark (465-472)
Chapter-48: Jeff Maggert (473-476)
Chapter-49: Tim Herron (477-480)
Chapter-50: Corey Pavin (481-486)
Chapter-51: Bob Tway (487-492)
Chapter-52: Rocco Mediate (493-496)
Chapter-53: Lee Janzen (497-500)
Chapter-54: Steve Elkington (501-506)
Chapter-55: Hal Sutton (507-510)

Section-II: WOMEN CAREER MONEY LEADERS

Chapter-56: Annika Sorenstam (513-526)
Chapter-57: Karrie Webb (527-534)
Chapter-58: Lorena Ochoa (535-542)
Chapter-59: Juli Inkster (543-550)
Chapter-60: Cristie Kerr (551-558)
Chapter-61: Se Ri Pak (559-566)
Chapter-62: Meg Mallon (567-574)
Chapter-63: Beth Daniel (575-582)
Chapter-64: Laura Davies (583-590)
Chapter-65: Mi Hyun Kim (591-598)
Chapter-66: Rosie Jones (599-606)
Chapter-67: Paula Creamer (607-614)
Chapter-68: Betsy King (615-622)
Chapter-69: Dottie Pepper (623-630)
Chapter-70: Lorie Kane (631-636)
Chapter-71: Pat Hurst (637-642)
Chapter-72: Suzann Pettersen (643-648)
Chapter-73: Jeong Jang (649-654)
Chapter-74: Hee-Won Han (655-660)
Chapter-75: Catriona Matthew (661-668)
Chapter-76: Sherri Steinhauer (669-674)
Chapter-77: Liselotte Neumann (675-680)
Chapter-78: Pat Bradley (681-686)
Chapter-79: Kelly Robbins (887-692)
Chapter-80: Rachel Hetherington (693-698)
Chapter-81: Helen Alfredsson (699-706)
Chapter-82: Michele Redman (707-712)
Chapter-83: Sophie Gustafson (713-720)
Chapter-84: Patty Sheehan (721-728)
Chapter-85: Grace Park (729-734)


PREFACE


Golf is one of the few ball games that do not require a standardized playing area. Instead, the game is played on golf “courses”, each of which features a unique design, although courses typically consist of either nine or 18 holes. Golf is defined, in the rules of golf, as “playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules.”
A golf-like game is recorded as taking place on February 26, 1297, in the Netherlands, in a city called Loenen aan de Vecht, where the Dutch played a game with a stick and leather ball. The winner was whoever hit the ball with the least number of strokes into a target several hundred yards away. The modern game of golf we understand today is generally considered to be a Scottish invention. In 1880 England had 12 courses, rising to 50 in 1887 and over 1000 by 1914. The game in England had progressed sufficiently by 1890 to produce its first Open Champion John Ball.
As in England, it was not until the late 19th century that golf started to become firmly established in United States. By 1910 there were 267 clubs. During the Roaring Twenties the game expanded greatly in popularity and by 1932 there were over 1,100 golf clubs affiliated to the USGA. In 1922 Walter Hagen became the first native born American to win the British Open Championship. The expansion of the game was halted by the Great Depression and World War II, but continued in the post war years. By 1980 there were over 5,000 USGA affiliated clubs, and today the total exceeds 9,700.
In 1924 The Japan Golf Association was established by the seven clubs then in existence. During the 1920s and early 30's several new courses were built. By 1956 there were 72 courses and in 1957 Torakichi Nakamura and Koichi Ono won the Canada Cup (now World Cup) in Japan, an event that is often cited as igniting the post-war golf boom. Between 1960 and 1964 the number of golf courses in Japan increased from 195 to 424. By the early 1970s there were over 1,000 courses. The 1987 Resort Law that reduced protection on agricultural land and forest preserves created a further boom in course construction and by 2009 there were over 2,400 courses. The popularity of golf in Japan also caused many golf resorts to be created across the Pacific Rim.
In 2005, Golf Digest calculated that the countries with most golf courses per capita, starting with the best endowed were: Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Canada, Wales, United States, Sweden, and England (countries with fewer than 500,000 people were excluded). Apart from Sweden, all of these countries have English as the majority language, but the number of courses in new territories is increasing rapidly.
The most notable example of this phenomenon is China. The first golf course in the People's Republic of China opened in 1984, but by the end of 2009 there were roughly 600 in the country. Jack Nicklaus, who in late 2009 had either designed or had plans to design 35 courses in China, claimed in October of that year that China had plans to build 1,400 public courses in the next five years
Historically the distinction between amateur and professional golfers had much to do with social class. In the developed world, the class distinction is now almost entirely irrelevant. Golf is affordable to a large portion of the population, and most golf professionals are from middle class backgrounds, often the same sort of backgrounds as the members of the clubs where they work or the people they teach the game, and educated to university level.
In various countries, Professional Golfers’ Associations (PGAs) serve either or both of these categories of professionals. There are separate LPGAs (Ladies Professional Golf Associations) for women. There are at least twenty professional golf tours, each run by a PGA or an independent tour organization, which is responsible for arranging events, finding sponsors, and regulating the tour.
The most widely known tour is the PGA Tour, which tends to attract the strongest fields, outside the four Majors and the four World Golf Championships events. This is due mostly to the fact that most PGA Tour events have a first prize of at least US $800,000. The PGA European Tour, which attracts a substantial number of top golfers from outside North America, ranks second to the PGA Tour in worldwide prestige.
The other leading men’s tours include the Japan Golf Tour, the Asian Tour (Asia outside Japan), the PGA Tour of Australasia, and the Sunshine Tour (for Southern Africa, primarily South Africa). The Japan, Australasian, Sunshine, PGA, and European Tours are the charter members of the trade body of the world's main tours, the International Federation of PGA Tours, founded in 1996. The Asian Tour became a full member in 1999. The Canadian Tour became an associate member of the Federation in 2000, and the Tour de las Americas (Latin America) became an associate member of the Federation in 2007. The Federation underwent a major expansion in 2009 which saw 11 new tours become full members—the Canadian Tour, Tour de las Americas, China Golf Association, the Korea Professional Golfers’ Association, Professional Golf Tour of India, and the operators of all six major women's tours worldwide.
The men’s major championships are the four most prestigious men’s tournaments of the year. In chronological order they are: The Masters, the U.S. Open, The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open) and the PGA Championship. Women’s golf does not have a globally agreed set of majors. Like the PGA Tour, the (U.S.) LPGA has four majors: the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the LPGA Championship, the U.S. Women's Open and the Women’s British Open. Only the last of these is also recognised by the Ladies European Tour. Senior (50-and-over) men’s golf does not have a globally agreed upon set of majors. The Champions Tour now recognises five majors: the Senior PGA Championship, the United States Senior Open, the Senior British Open Championship, The Tradition and the Senior Players Championship.
The Official World Golf Rankings is a system for rating the performance level of male professional golfers (although there is no rule prohibiting women from being ranked). They were introduced in 1986 and are endorsed by the four major championships and six major professional tours, five of which are charter members of the International Federation of PGA Tours.
The book before you—GOLF: Career Money Leaders—features features only 50 top men, and 30 women, who earned highest prize money in their careers.
The section- Men Career Money Leaders include: Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els Davis Love III, David Toms, Kenny Perry, Justin Leonard, Stewart Cink, Steve Stricker, Mike Weir, Sergio Garcia, Scott Verplank, Retief Goosen, Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, Mark Calcavecchia, Geoff Ogilvy, K.J. Choi, Rory Sabbatini, Fred Couples, Adam Scott, Jerry Kelly, Chris DiMarco, Tom Lehman, Fred Funk, Nick Price, Zach Johnson, Charles Howell III, Padraig Harrington, Chad Campbell, Bob Estes, Billy Mayfair, Luke Donald, Stephen Ames, Scott Hoch, David Duval, Jeff Sluman, Brad Faxon, Steve Flesch, Tim Clark, Jeff Maggert, Tim Herron, Corey Pavin, Bob Tway, Rocco Mediate, Lee Janzen, Steve Elkington and Hal Sutton.
The section- Women Career Money Leaders includes: Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Lorena Ochoa, Juli Inkster, Cristie Kerr, Se Ri Pak, Meg Mallon, Beth Daniel, Laura Davies, Mi Hyun Kim, Rosie Jones, Paula Creamer, Betsy King, Dottie Pepper, Lorie Kane, Pat Hurst, Suzann Pettersen, Jeong Jang, Hee-Won Han, Catriona Matthew, Sherri Steinhauer, Liselotte Neumann, Pat Bradley, Kelly Robbins, Rachel Hetherington, Helen Alfredsson, Michele Redman, Sophie Gustafson, Patty Sheehan and Grace Park
I have included five introductory chapters to have wide view of the professional golf tours and championships. So this book is the window of the International Golf and it’s most popular and prize money earning players. Sorry to say, so many great players of Golf are not included in detail due to ranking limits.
I hope this book would provide the best useful information and a better reading delight to the esteemed readers of all walks of life. I have compiled and edited this book from different new sources, which are mentioned in the course of the relevant text. I am obliged and thankful to all of them, particularly PGA and LPGA.

PRADEEP THAKUR
October28, 2010


Chapter: 2

PROFESSIONAL GOLF TOURS


Professional golf tours are the means by which otherwise unconnected professional golf tournaments are organised into a regular schedule. There are separate tours for men and women, with each tour being based in a specific geographical region, although some of their tournaments may be held in other parts of the world.
Golf is one of the more lucrative sports in the world for both men and women, but it has a very different structure from other sports, especially team sports. Almost all (at least 95%) professional golfers make their main income as club or teaching professionals, rather than from competition. “Touring professionals”, also known as “Tournament golfers” or “Pro golfers”, who make their income from prize money and endorsements, are small elite within the profession. The very best golfers make up to 8-figure incomes in U.S. dollars from tournament play alone; when endorsement income is taken into account, Tiger Woods is the highest earning sportsman in the world, according to Forbes magazine, although this is likely to change in 2010 and beyond as many of his sponsors have severed ties with him after his 2009 sex scandal.
For the less successful trying to make a living from tournament golf can be precarious: tournaments have entry fees and the associated costs of travel and lodging, plus the hire of a caddy. Moreover, most tournaments have a “cut” after the second of four rounds, in which a minimum aggregate score is selected to eliminate roughly half the field, and advance the remaining to pairings for the final rounds. Only those players remaining after the cut earn any prize money at all. Thus, after costs are taken into account, lesser-known tournament golfers who are playing erratically (and do not have a steady income from endorsements) can be in dire financial straits in a bad year.
History: The golf tour system evolved more by trial and error than by design. In the early days of professional golf in each region of the world each professional tournament was established by a separate golf club, golf organisation or commercial sponsor. As the number of tournaments increased the most talented professional golfers concentrated mainly on playing in tournaments rather than on club professional and golf instruction work. Once a good number of tournaments were being played in a region each year they were formalised into a "tour", which was supervised by a single organisation, although individual tournaments continue to be run by separate bodies in many cases.
The PGA Tour was the pioneer of the tour system, and its establishment date is not very clearly defined. The PGA of America was established in 1916, lists of players with most wins in each season are available from that year, and career win totals are based on results from 1916 onwards. However the idea of a “tour” had not firmly crystallized at that time and several important developments came much later.
Bob Harlow was named manager of the PGA Tournament Bureau in 1930, the first “playing pros” organization was formed in 1932, and money lists are available from 1934. However the PGA Tour itself dates the formal establishment of the Tour to 1968, when the "Tournament Players Division" split from the PGA of America. The dates of establishment of the other key tours include: LPGA Tour (1950); European Tour (1972); Japan Golf Tour (1973); Asian Tour (1995). The term “circuit” is often used to describe professional tournament golf in the pre-Tour era in any given region. For example, before the foundation of the Asian Tour, tournaments in Asia were part of the “Asian circuit”.
As professional golf has continued to expand developmental tours such as the Challenge Tour (1986) and the Nationwide Tour (1990; originally called the Ben Hogan Tour), and senior tours such as the Champions Tour (1980; originally the Senior PGA Tour) and the European Seniors Tour (1992) have been established to give more golfers the opportunity to play on a tour, and to take advantage of the willingness of sponsors and broadcasters to fund an ever increasing number of tournaments.

Structure of tour golf: There are more than twenty professional golf tours, each run by a PGA or an independent tour organization which is responsible for arranging events, finding sponsors, and regulating the tour. Most of the major tours are player controlled organizations whose commercial objective is to maximize the income of their members by maximizing prize money. The larger tours have a tournament almost every week through most of the year.
Each tour has “members” who have earned their “tour cards”, meaning they are entitled to play in most of the tour's events. A golfer can become a member of a leading tour by succeeding in an entry tournament, usually called a Qualifying School (“Q-School”); or, by achieving a designated level of success in its tournaments when competing as an invited non-member; or, much rarer, by having enough notable achievements on other tours to make them a desirable member. Membership of some of the lesser tours is open to any registered professional who pays an entry fee.
There are enormous differences in the financial rewards offered by the various golf tours, so players on all but the top few tours always aspire to move up if they can. For example, the PGA Tour, which is the first-tier tour in the United States, offers nearly hundred times much prize money each season as the third-tier NGA Hooters Tour. The hierarchy of tours in financial terms is as follows:

• Clear 1st: PGA Tour
• Clear 2nd: European Tour
• Third and fourth (in alphabetical order): Champions Tour; LPGA Tour
• Fifth to seventh (in alphabetical order): Asian Tour; Japan Golf Tour; LPGA of Japan Tour

In the 1990s the Japan Golf Tour was the third richest tour, but in recent years its number of tournaments has been steadily contracting from a peak of 44 in 1990 to 24 in 2007, and tournament purses have risen only slowly. The (U.S.) LPGA is currently seeing a substantial decline in financial rewards; when its commissioner Carolyn Bivens was forced to resign by a player revolt in 2009, it had only 14 events locked in for 2010. Its 2010 schedule was ultimately unveiled with 24 events, down from 34 as recently as 2008.
The late-2000s economic crisis has not yet had a major impact on the PGA Tour, but only because most of its tournament sponsors were locked in through 2010; there has been media speculation that the expiration of those sponsorship contracts in 2011 will see substantial changes in the landscape of that tour. The Asian Tour and the LPGA of Japan Tour enjoyed rapid growth in prize money in the early 2000s, and have been less affected by the economic crisis than the U.S. LPGA.

International Federation of PGA Tours: The International Federation of PGA Tours is an organization founded in 1996 to enable the world's leading tours to discuss common and global issues in professional golf. The founding members were the United States based PGA Tour, the PGA European Tour, the Japan Golf Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, and the Southern Africa based Sunshine Tour. In 1999 they were joined by the Asian Tour and a year later the Canadian Tour became an associate member. The South and Central America based Tour de las Americas became the federation's second associate member in 2007.
In 2009 the federation announced a major expansion, as the Tour de las Americas and the Canadian Tour became full members alongside nine new members. They were the China Golf Association, the Korea Professional Golfers' Association and the Professional Golf Tour of India as well as the organizers of the six major Ladies tours, the LPGA Tour, the Ladies European Tour, the Australian Ladies Professional Golf Tour, the Japan LPGA, the Korean LPGA, and the Ladies Asian Golf Tour.
The International Federation of PGA Tours founded the World Golf Championships in 1999 and sanctions the Official World Golf Rankings.