Vijay Singh and Larry Nelson were inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on Monday evening in St. Augustine, Florida. Both players were extremely deserving of the honor, but I wish the Hall of Fame would wait until a player retires from the PGA Tour before being inducted. Just a nit.

It’s been rehashed many times before, but Larry Nelson didn’t take up the game until he was in his 20s, after he finished his tour in Vietnam, and only dreamt he could play in the big leagues. He was a true gentleman in all respects and was admired by both fans and his peers alike.

Singh was also somewhat of a late bloomer, but did have some controversy early in his career when he was accused of cheating on the Asian tour. But he overcame that and went on to become a true superstar in the Tiger Woods generation, becoming the only professional to unseat Tiger from his number one ranking (thus far).

Sorenstam Wins Again

Annika Sorenstam is riding a familiar end-of-season hot streak as she won the Dubai Ladies Masters by 6 shots over Helen Alfredsson, and it wasn’t even that close. Sorenstam has made it somewhat of a habit to turn up the heat late in the year grab some season ending tournaments, and this year is no different.

European Tour

Jeev Milkha Singh won the 2006 Volvo Masters in Sotogrande, Spain for his second win of the year, but Padraig Harrington was the bigger winner as he came from behind to win the European Order of Merit for the first time in his career. The Order of Merit is Europe’s money title and Paul Casey and David Howell came into to the tournament as the favorite to win the Order of Merit, but both had health problems and were never a factor. Congrats to Padraig! He’s one of the good guys.

PGA

K.J. Choi won the season-ending 2006 Chrysler Championship by 4 shots over Paul Goydos and Brett Wetterich, and like Annika’s win, it wasn’t that close. There were more sub-plots because other players were trying to crack other positions to gain themselves status and benefits for next year.

Jim Thorpe won the Champions Tour Charles Schwab Cup Championship tournament in Sonoma, but Jay Haas won the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup and a one million-dollar annuity (as we must have heard a hundred times during the telecast). Ironically, Haas won the Schwab Cup because Loren (the-boss-from-the-moss) Roberts missed a 5-foot putt for par on the 18th hole that would have given Roberts the Schwab Cup. It was that close of a race between Haas and Roberts.

I wouldn’t say that Haas backed into the Cup, but both Saturday and Sunday, he struggled with his tee shots and wanted to give the Cup away to Roberts. However, Roberts couldn’t capitalize on the misfortunes of Haas and also struggled with his flat stick on Sunday. I will have to admit that the Schwab Cup points competition made the last few weeks of the Champions Tour more interesting than it otherwise might have been. I hope that next year’s PGA Tour FedEx Cup will provide similar excitement.

Tiger Woods made a suprise announcement yesterday saying he would skip the PGA’s Tour Championship next week in Atlanta. The announcement caught everyone by surpise, not the least of whom was the PGA staff in Atlanta. They were a bit miffed at Tiger saying the sponsors and fans both would be disappointed.

Given the emotional rollercoaster of a year Tiger has had, he certainly has earned next week off if he so desires. Of course, there’s lots of speculation that Tiger wanted to keep his winning streak intact and that he might have felt rusty. Whaaat? If he wanted to keep his winning streak alive, what better place than a limited field of “all-stars”?

I for one applaud his decision and the courage it took to to pretty much give Finchem and company the “see-ya” next week wave.

Just when you think Annika Sorenstam is losing her grip as the LPGA’s dominant player, she steps up her performance yet again. It’s easy to forget she’s been almost as dominant as Tiger Woods, but she’s gotten lost in all the hype of the younger players on the LPGA tour.

Case in point: she’s leading this week’s Dubai Ladies Masters by 5 strokes at the halfway point. Granted, this isn’t exactly a heavyweight field, but nonetheless, she’s in a familiar spot once again. While this tournament doesn’t count as points towards Player of the Year, it still sends a message to Lorena Ochoa that Sorenstam is still the big dog on the LPGA Tour.

This week’s Chrysler Championship is the last tournament of the year to earn official money and solidify money positions. There is lots of talk on the Golf Channel about guys trying to make the top 30 and make the field of the Tour Championship. However, guys that finish 125th or better earn full playing status on the PGA Tour for 2007, which makes each week a little less stressful. However guys that finish 150th or better earn partial playing status and can get in on sponsors exemptions. So this is a big week for the PGA tour players.

But a quick look at the official money list gives a little different perspective. Bubba Dickerson sits at the 125th position as of this column, and he’s earned $650,314 for the year. That’s almost three-quarters of a million dollars, for being better than more than half of all the players on the PGA Tour. Specifically, he’s in the top 47% of all players. He’s 112th in driving accuracy, so not exactly a straight hitter of the ball, but straight enough to earn a very good living playing golf.

So what’s my point? You can earn an outstanding living just being an average player, which in my opinion is part of the reason the PGA Tour doesn’t have any under-30 players that are hungry. Also note that the top 90 players earned at least one million dollars. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

This episode was being billed as the “battle of the sexes” as the women were going to take the men on in head-to-head matches. Though I had no expectations going in about who might win, I thought for sure the men would at least make it close, but boy was I wrong. The men got spanked, no wait, they got their respective clocks cleaned, no, they just got their arses kicked.

I suspected the men weren’t quite as good as the women from the beginning and it played out that way in this episode. Each of the men choked to some degree, but the most surprising was Albert. He dead-shanked his approach to the last hole and locked up the victory for the women, which is suprising because Albert has been the most consistent to this point.

Now the men head off to the elmination challenge (which is a separate show to be aired next week), but they’ve added the same twist they did to last year’s show in that one previously elminated competitor will be allowed to play his way back onto the show. I’m not sure I agree with this, but hey, if it keeps viewers interested, then so be it.

Also, anyone know what happened to the All Access Show this time around?

The Natalie Gulbis reality show is back on the the Golf Channel for its second season, and she’s picked up from she left off last year. It’s an interesting show, but quite frankly, no more interesting than John Daly’s reality show, but we all know why Gulbis is back on the air. I can’t blame her for wanting to get more media exposure, as it all translates to more financial freedom at the end of the day, but she’s also a very talented golfer and I can’t help but think this takes away from her focus.

Her father is back as well, and it’s no secret that he really manages the Gulbis empire, not unlike Michelle Wie’s father. The only difference is that Gulbis senior tends to come across as a meddling (dare I see leeching) parent that looks like he belongs on a fishing hole in some backwoods county. Okay, maybe that’s kind of rough, but I think Natalie, like Michelle Wie at some point, will realize that there are professional management people out there that are probably better suited to guide their careers.

Good guy Fred Funk won his first Champions Tour event, in only his 3rd start on the senior circuit. Funk is one of the few guys on tour that for most part, enjoys playing the game, and actually shows it during his round. Funk tells the story of mimicking Tiger Woods’ fist pump at the PGA Championship a few years ago, and how much fun the crowd enjoyed because it was a fun gesture and not at all meant to demean Tiger’s pump.

Funk is exactly what the Champion Tour needs to spruce up the telecasts, now that Hale Irwin isn’t a top-10 factor any longer. In fact, Funk’s post-round comment is truly indicative of what he feels when playing his round, when he said he really enjoys the fact the crowd is allowed inside the ropes on the closing holes. He appreciates the fans and is hell-bent on giving them a good time.

Funk has been a late bloomer on the regular tour and actually won the Players Championship last year, at the age of 49, which is every bit as impressive as Jack winning at Augusta when he was “only” 46. Ironically, Funk probably got as much press when he played the silly-season Skins event last November when he put on a skirt, provided by Annika Sorenstam, when she outdrove him on one of the holes. It was great golf entertainment, and I look forward to seeing Fred in more Champions Tour events.

Joe Durant came from behind to shoot a 7-under 65 and win the FUNAI Classic at Walt Disney World. Durant shot a very steady round and made the birdie putts when he needed to to keep the pretenders at bay in the final round. And similar to yesterday’s round, more than one player had a chance to put pressure on Durant, but none did.

Davis Love III probably attempted to put the most pressure on Durant, but he couldn’t put two consecutive shots together when it counted. However, Troy Matteson played ulta-conservative and you could tell all he wanted was a decent check this week. Justin Rose’s game never caught fire either and he was left wondering what might-have been.