Golf: Money maketh tour pro

Europeans enjoy autumn while North Americans talk of the fall, which seems particularly appropriate for many professional golfers coming to the end of their season in the Northern Hemisphere.

At the start of the year their hopes are high that this will be the one they break into the big time. By September many are battling to preserve the status they have.

The United States PGA tour is the pinnacle for most players and the fall from grace can be especially painful for those who play each week for millions of dollars and enjoy a cosseted lifestyle enhanced by eager sponsors.

Hundreds aspire to gain a USPGA tour card. Hanging on to one is increasingly difficult as standards rise and the tour becomes more international.

Finishing in the top 125 money winners is the basic ingredient for survival for another season. Tournament winners earn multi-year exemptions in proportion to the status of the event.

Those who don't qualify on either count must head back to the cut-throat end-of-year tour school where they must compete against another crop of contenders who have survived previous qualifying rounds.

Tiger Woods heads the official money list with US$8,613,024 ($12.16 million) from 18 tournaments. Last year's top earner, Vijay Singh, has US$7,463,503 from 25. The man on the bubble in 125th place is Neal Lancaster with US$491,671.

New Zealand's two active members, Craig Perks and Michael Long, are neighbours in 195th and 196th places with US$171,379 from 22 and US$169,618 from 20 respectively.

Perks still has two more years of eligibility earned from his Players' Championship win in 2002 but Long will need some decent cheques in the remaining seven regular events if he is to avoid dropping back to the tour school for the second time in his career.

Long has twice earned a full tour card by finishing in the top 20 on the second-level Nationwide Tour.

Of the 54 players who qualified through the Nationwide Tour or the tour school at the end of last season, only 15 are within the top 125. The most successful has been tour school graduate Sean O'Hair, who is 16th on the money list with US$2,096,387.

New Zealand has three players competing regularly on the Nationwide Tour - Grant Waite and Steve Alker, who have both played on the main tour, and Tim Wilkinson, who qualified for the Nationwide from the tour school last year.

The money leader on the tour is Troy Matteson with US$357,029 from 21 events, Wilkinson is 65th with US$62,170 from 20, Alker is 78th with US$54,749 from 18 and Waite 92nd with US$39,575 from 15. Waite has earned almost as much in half a dozen appearances on the main tour.

Eric Axley, with US$150,749, is in 20th place, where the automatic qualification for the main tour ends but 60th place is also a target at this time of year because the top 60 get to play in the rich tour championship, which can make big changes in the final money list.

Phil Tataurangi has taken a year out from the game to allow his troublesome back time to heal. He will still have USPGA tour eligibility when he returns.

Michael Campbell, as the 2005 US Open champion, will be able to play when and where he likes for the next decade. He is second on the European Tour money list with 1,796,372 ($3.11 million). Stephen Scahill is 137th with 109,131.

David Smail's tournament win last year has extended his eligibility for the Japan Tour. He lies 24th with earnings of Y27,048,860 ($345,000) this season. Richard Lee is 17th on the Asian Tour with US$95,829, Mahal Pearce is 21st with US$89,494 and Eddie Lee 29th with US$82,960.

New Zealand's top woman golfer, Lynnette Brooky, is 17th on the European Women's Tour with 90,269. Elizabeth McKinnon is 89th with 12,238.