The dominance of Tiger Woods against people playing in his era, can be viewed not only through wins, but through money earned. After Tiger, next on the list is Phil Mickelson who has earned nearly $67 million. Although a nice amount of money, Phil is nearly $30 million behind Tiger.
The era of golf in which Tiger has played has a lot to do with the enormous amount of career earnings. Sam Snead is the career leader in PGA Tour wins with 82. Snead's career earnings were $620,126. Sam Snead started his career in 1937 and money in golf was no where near the value of todays game. Snead's most earnings in an individual tournament was in 1968 when he came in second place in Milwaukee. He earned only $28,000 in that tournament. Tiger Woods has won $1 million dollars or more 38 different times.
The huge increase in dollars for the game of golf can be attributed to Tiger. When Tiger entered the sport as a professional, he brought with him huge crowds to the tournaments and big crowds watching on TV. Tiger spoke on the time of golf in which he played, "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."
Tiger is currently in contention of winning his third FedEx Cup. The FedEx Cup bonus pays $10 million. The two times that Tiger previously won the FedEx Cup, have not counted toward his career earnings.
Final Thought
It is no surprise to anyone that Tiger Woods has earned a lot of money playing golf. His dominance has been clearly witnessed by any golf fan. I think the $100 million dollar milestone is just another remarkable achievement by Tiger. His career earnings is only a fraction of the total amount he has earned because of golf. Endorsement money for Tiger Woods is in the hundreds of millions. Whether or not people like Tiger because of his off the course drama is up to them, yet there is no denying what he has accomplished on the golf course is truly amazing. As for the rest of Tigers career.... he might not be done just yet.
@dmrosen7
I really think that this is a testament to Tiger's all around greatness. To make that much money he had to 1) win a lot of tournaments 2) win a lot of majors 3) change the game 4) attract big business. Tiger has done that. I love the business of golf and I really hope what Tiger was able to build can be sustained when Tiger's day is eventually the past.
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