In addition to his status as the No. 1-ranked player in the world, English-bred, Northwestern-educated and Florida-inhabitant Luke Donald also leads the money lists of both the PGA and European tours.
Safe to say, then, that Donald, 34, a 10-year veteran of professional golf on both sides of the Atlantic, is not fretting too much over the origin of his next paycheck.
And yet, Donald put it succinctly when asked for comment on the PGA Tour's new television contracts with the networks that will begin in 2013 and extend for nine years.
"That means I have a job for another few years,'' he said.
It is a bit more complicated than that, of course, but in simple terms, Donald is correct, and those who play golf for a living at the top level of the game can feel secure in the knowledge that -- if their games cooperate -- there will be plenty to play for on the PGA Tour over the next decade.
Golf has no labor strife. There are no unions, no lockouts, no strikes. There are no holdouts, or contracts squabbles, or worries about signing bonuses.
You get what you play for, what you earn, but those big purses don't just appear out of nowhere.
They come from collaboration between the PGA Tour, the title sponsors, the broadcast networks (CBS, NBC and the Golf Channel in the U.S, with rights fees also paid by several international broadcast outlets) and the local tournament organizing groups.
All parts are necessary for the system to work, but it is especially important for the TV contracts to be in place because just about everything starts there. Although the amount paid to the PGA Tour is not disclosed, the networks are paying enough to the tour that it, in turn, can fund 62 percent of the purse each week. At next week's BMW Championship, for example, the purse is $8 million, of which nearly $5 million is coming from NBC.
The remaining 38 percent, or about $3 million, comes from the title sponsor. BMW, as sponsor of a FedEx Cup playoff event, is generally believed to be on the hook for $8 million to $10 million per year as part of its sponsorship. A good chunk of that goes to NBC in the form of guaranteed advertising buys that help make golf unique among sports.
Unlike, say, the NFL, where the networks pay a rights fee to the league and then recoup their investment through advertising, the PGA Tour guarantees the networks a certain percentage of advertising from its various title sponsors -- from 65 percent to 75 percent. That means there is far less advertising inventory to sell each week, meaning profitability is easier to attain, regardless of ratings.
"Now that we have that continuity, we're hopeful and optimistic that along with the unlocking of digital rights [another part of the television deal] and the nine-year runway to provide spots with greater value, that all of that will help us continue positive momentum in sponsor renewals,'' said Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour's executive vice president, international affairs.
The tour has 11 tournaments whose title sponsorships expire after their 2012 tournaments (plus the Viking Classic, which recently announced it was not renewing its title sponsorship that expires this year). That includes four tournaments in the first quarter as well as one of the playoff events, the Deutsche Bank Championship.
That might appear ominous, but the PGA Tour under commissioner Tim Finchem has had remarkable success of re-signing title sponsors or finding new ones in a dreadful economic climate. RBC signed on to save the tournament at Hilton Head, for example. Several tournaments, including next week's BMW Championship and the Tour Championship (Coca-Cola), have title sponsors that were extended well before the television deal was completed.
And all of this is happening at a time when companies are looking at the bottom line more than ever and when Tiger Woods is in the midst of a career downturn that affects television ratings.
And yet, Woods' lack of success over the past two years did not appear to have the doom-and-gloom impact many predicted.
"We didn't get a sense it was a big deal,'' Votaw said. "This was a year in which Tiger wasn't a story line at least in terms of how he performed on Saturday and Sunday. He didn't play in that many tournaments. Tiger has always helped ratings spike against a very high core of golf fans. We saw the momentum of the younger generation pushing the veteran players [to] some compelling performances on pretty big stages. We were encouraged by the fact that in spite of Tiger's absence we were doing very, very well.''
PGA Tour players are unlikely to see the type of purse increases that Woods first brought to the game. In 1997, Woods' first full season on the PGA Tour, total purses were $70,800,800. In 2007, the first year of the current deal that is set to expire after 2012, purses had risen to $272,300,000. That's more than a 280 percent increase. Even allowing for inflation, the increase was more than 190 percent.
Finchem suggested that purses will continue to increase, at least somewhat. That means PGA Tour players can expect to be competing for at least $5 million per week, with over $1 million going to the winner. Those numbers are expected to inch up, and it's hard to envision anyone complaining.
What remains to be seen is how the FedEx Cup playoff format will be altered, if at all. FedEx's six-year contract to fund the bonus pool -- which pays $10 million to the winner and $35 million overall per year -- expires at the end of the 2012 season.
Will FedEx renew? Will another company step in to keep the bonus pool the same? Will the system be blown up and funded differently? Nobody knows at this point, although Finchem hints at no trouble ahead.
"We don't see at this point any change in our basic structure as it relates to the playoffs,'' Finchem said last week when the new television contracts were announced. "This is a long-term deal, and our television partners are certainly open to us at any point coming in and saying, 'Here's a better way to do it.' But at this point in time, if you're looking at the basic network scheduling, we're pretty comfortable.''
It might not seem so simple, and there might be challenges to getting that deal done. But those same obstacles were apparent with numerous title sponsorships and the future television contracts. Finchem has managed to deliver on all of it.
"Hats off to Tim,'' Donald said. "All credit to him for getting it done in tough economic times. It just shows golf is still worth betting on.''
Presidents Cup race
The automatic qualifiers for the American team will be determined at the conclusion of the BMW Championship next week, and the race for the final spots is tight. Jim Furyk, who has struggled through a tough year after winning the FedEx Cup in 2010, moved into ninth position after a strong finish at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Furyk has been on every U.S. Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup team dating to 1997. The top 10 automatically qualify and then captain Fred Couples has two at-large selections to make.
David Toms is 10th, followed closely by Brandt Snedeker and Bill Haas. The points are determined by money earned in official events, and in 2011 those points are doubled. Snedeker trails Toms by just 56,032 points while Haas is only 101,798 behind. Since there is no cut at the BMW, finishes well down the leaderboard could alter the outcome.
All of this is made more complicated by the fact that Couples has already assured one of his two at-large selections to Woods, who is 29th in the standings. And Haas' father, Jay, is one of Couples' assistant captains.
And what about Rickie Fowler or Zach Johnson? Or Keegan Bradley, who won the PGA Championship? It's going to be an interesting call for Couples.
The International side is also filled with plenty of intrigue. Australians Geoff Ogilvy, Robert Allenby and Aaron Baddeley are all outside of the top 10 for the event to be played at Royal Melbourne.
FedEx flameouts
Several big-name players failed to finish among the top 70, meaning they won't advance to the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship.
Graeme McDowell: The 2010 U.S. Open champion finished 73rd after a lackluster season that saw him miss the cut in three of the four majors, his last top 20 a tie for 14th at the U.S. Open.
Anthony Kim: He began last week inside the number at 66th but fell to 78th after missing the cut at the Deutsche Bank. Kim has struggled to regain the form he had before 2010 thumb surgery. He missed 11 cuts this year.
Ian Poulter: The Englishman is ranked 18th in the world but couldn't make it to Chicago because he had no top-10s on the PGA Tour since the season-opening Hyundai Championship. His only top-20 since March was a tie for 18th at the Barclays.
Padraig Harrington: The three-time major champion just turned 40 and continues to fiddle with his swing. He hasn't won since his 2008 PGA Championship title. He finished 89th in the standings. His last top-10 came at the Wells Fargo Championship.
Stewart Cink: The 2009 British Open champion has not won since his playoff victory over Tom Watson at Turnberry and this year had just one top-10 finish, a tie for ninth at the Wells Fargo Championship. He missed his last three cuts.
Bob Harig covers golf for ESPN.com. He can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com.
