The annual PGA and LPGA qualifying tournaments are underway and it’s always a surprise to see some of the “name” players at the PGA school trying to re-earn their cards for the big show. This year Bob May is at the marathon session trying to get back onto the PGA tour. Yes, it’s the same Bob May that went toe-to-toe with Tiger Woods at the 2000 PGA Championship. The other surprise at this year’s tournament is Lee Janzen. Janzen is a two-time U.S. Open winner (though he caught lightning in a bottle both times) and it goes to show that even seasoned veterans can fall on hard times.

On the LPGA side, the Big Break V winner Ashley Prange is trying to earn her card the hard way. She missed qualifying for the big tour by not finishing high-enough on the Futures Tour. It’s going to be a grueling test for Prange and this will definitely bring out the best and worst of her game.

The LPGA had one of its better years, that according to Carolyn Bivens, the comish of the LPGA. She recently gave her state-of-the-tour address to the LPGA members and though she’s made some enemies this year, she’s also made a positive impact on the tour and the LPGA in general.

For example, did you know that the LPGA doesn’t provide a health-care package for its members (unlike the PGA)? She’s working to make that happen. The LPGA does have a pension plan for its members, but its paltry $19 million when compared to the PGA Tour’s $500 million. That’s not to say that the LPGA needs to be on-par with the PGA (it can’t for financial reasons), but the gap need to close considerably.

The future of the LPGA lies in the hands of the likes of Paula Creamer, Michelle Wie, Morgan Pressel, Lorena Ochoa, Natalie Gulbis, Kristina Kim, as well as the Asian contingent that’s always on the leaderboard come Sunday. Yes, Annika Sorenstam still has lots of good golf left, but she’s on the downside of her power curve.

The Golf Channel’s Big Break VI finals are set and it should be an interesting set of matches. On the men’s side, Jeff Mitchell will take on Denny Hepler in the 18-hole match play event. The women’s match pits Bri Vega against Bridget Dwyer and it would be an understatement to say these women want to beat the other, real bad.

The show has been more interesting as of late simply because it’s getting down to the finals the emotion is starting to show on some of the competitors. However, I have to say that the men have in general, really stunk up the course. They got spanked by the women in a heads-up competition, and have looked out of sorts most of the series.

Regardless, the finals should be good, and I look for Bridget and Denny to take the honors.

Justin Rose, the much-heralded player from Britain finally won his second tournament, 4 years after winning his first. Rose shot a 1-over 73 to win the Mastercard Masters in Melbourne, Australia. Rose burst onto the golf scene finishing fourth in the 1998 British Open at Birkdale as a 17-year-old amateur, but has not qualified for the British Open since 2003, when he missed the cut at Sandwich.

I enjoy watching Rose play, but he’s been position numerous times this year to win on the PGA Tour, but couldn’t close the deal. Hopefully this win will push him over the top.

In what had to be one of the most uneventful Skins Games in many years, Stephen Ames won the annual Skins Game. Ames won the second playoff hole and two skins that was worth $270,000, which brought his weekend total to 8 skins and $590,000. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

Has the Skins game run its course after all these years? Fred Funk has made it more entertaining that it might have been, but Freddy is no Trevino, Nicklaus, or Watson, and you need that kind of star power to make this successful. Maybe the format needs changing? How about two from the LPGA and two from the PGA? Christina Kim and Morgan Pressel vs. Camilo Vijegas and Bubba Watson? Now that would interesting!

Michelle Wie’s nosedive into mediocrity continued this week as she shot 81-80 at the 2006 Casio World Open in Kochi, Japan and missed a cut at another men’s event. Why does her management team allow her to keep embarrassing herself by playing in these men’s events?

As anyone knows that read this blog, I’ve been huge Wie supporter from the beginning, but as I’ve also written recently, it’s time to refocus Michelle on the LPGA tour. Doesn’t Nike and her other big name sponsors realize that at some point, she’s going to be nothing more than an exhibition draw? I suppose if that pays the bills and keeps the fans coming, then it must be okay.

Will she end going down the same road as Ty Tryon? A can’t-miss phenom, that, well missed the boat.

I was reading some golf forums yesterday and came across a piece of news that I hadn’t read anywhere. And I’m constantly looking for golf news on a daily basis. As it turns out, Callaway Golf docked Mickelson’s $10 million contract because he chose to skip the last nine PGA Tour events of the season. And according to some sources, he’s been warned in the past about this by Callaway and they felt they had no other choice than to fine him this year.

Now, I seriously doubt that the “fine” will put a dent in his fortune and is probably just an irritance more than anything else. However, the fact that this news didn’t get a lot of press (or any) means that the Mickelson marketing camp made sure that the media (his partners) kept it under wraps as long as possible, so as not to hurt his boy-next-door image.

I wonder what Phil’s justification was for thumbing his nose at Callaway (again) knowing that he’d probably get fined. He signed a binding contract with Callaway to represent them by playing their equipment and there’s a direction connection between his appearances and their revenue stream. This a prime example that the amount of money these guys are making is causing them to make decisions they probably otherwise wouldn’t make.

It’s a shock, I know, but Tiger Woods won the PGA Grand Slam for the 7th time in 8 tries at Poipu Bay in Kauai. This time it was in come-from-behind fashion as he shot a 6-under 66 to win by two shots over Jim Furyk. I’ve watched this tournament since its inception and Tiger seemed totally disengaged for some odd reason. In fact, when he holed the winning putt, he had a look of consternation on his face.

I supposed I’m reading something that’s not even there, but maybe Woods realized this long and emotional season is finally over. He’s had the lowest of lows (his Father passing away) and the highest-of-highs (winning two majors) and everything in between during his season.

I read some interesting stats on Tiger today and it really hit me that he’s played unbelieveable golf. He played in 15 events and won 8; that’s winning 53% of his starts. And he won $9.9 million to boot. And to think he was getting slammed by some of his peers for missing the Tour Championship. Give me a break.

The November 2006 issue of Golf Digest had a very interesting article on money and how it relates to all things golf. One of the things that really grabbed me was the salaries of the various announcers/hosts/analysts on tv. As shown below, Jim Nantz is the highest paid golf-related celebrity raking in $4.375 million. Granted, he does golf, football, basketball and who knows what else so he’s definitely worth it.

Announcer	Annual Salary
Jim Nantz	$4.375 million
Nick Faldo	$900,000
Kelly Tilghman	$375,000
Kraig Kann	$315,000
Megan West	$125,000

I’m probably more surprised at the difference between Kelly Tilghman and Kraig Kann’s salaries as I figured they’d be much closer than reported. This implies that Tilgman is the “lead” analyst/host at the Golf Channel and if so, then like Nantz, she deserves what she’s making. On the other hand, (and this is an opinion only), I’m not a huge fan of Megan West and I couldn’t tell you why. Considering that all she does is the evening golf news, is that out of line? I’m not sure, but it’s still good money.

Did you also know that a 1-hour lesson with Butch Harmon costs only $600/hour? And an all-day outing starts at $50,000! David Leadbetter charges $10,000 for a half-day lesson. What? I’ll have more in upcoming blogs.

Let the silly season begin in earnest as this week brings the PGA Grand Slam of Golf where the the winners of the four majors meet in Hawaii for sun, surf, and the chance to earn some Christmas money before the holidays. This year’s tournament has an odd twist for a couple of different reasons.

First, Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship and the Open Championship so Jim Furyk was asked to represent the PGA. Secondly, Phil Mickelson opted out, presumably because he’s still not over the meltdown at the U.S. Open, while Mike Weir was asked to replace him. Woods owns this event as he’s won 6 of the last 7 outings and though he’s lost the last couple of tournaments in Asia, he’ll still be the man to beat.