Tiger Woods admits the existence of appearance money ahead of the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship
Former world number one Tiger Woods admitted on Wednesday, January 25, that there have been strong indications of the existence of appearance money and said only the PGA Tour in the US does not endorse it.
The Stanford graduate was talking to the press after his nine-hole practice session at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, ahead of the star-studded Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, where he is making his debut this week.
Woods said over the existence of the appearance fee, "You know, I'd have to say yes, it certainly does. That's one of the reasons why a lot of the guys who play in Europe, they do play in Europe, and they do get paid. I think the only tour that doesn't pay is the U.S. tour. But, you know, a lot of the guys play all around the world and they do get appearance fees".
Woods kept from directly admitting that he has accepted appearance fee to play in Abu Dhabi this week, instead of his favourite hunting ground, the Torrey Pines, which will be the venue of this week’s Farmer’s Insurance Open.
He has won the title at Torrey Pines for a staggering seven times including the US Open in 2008.
He will be opening his season with a relatively unknown turf and hopes to continue with his fine form in 2012.
The controversial appearance money hullabaloo has raised its head again and the American golf critics in particular, have targeted the matter after being ditched by the former world number one.
Only few big names are playing this week at Farmer’s Insurance Open, rendering the event life less and stagnant.
On the contrary, Abu Dhabi is all set to attract one of the biggest crowds to its sprawling course and the sponsors at HSBC are hopeful of making this year’s event a blistering success.
The 14-major-winner is experiencing a resurgence in his form and career after a thrilling victory at Chevron World Challenge.
He lauded Englishman Luke Donald’s glorious achievement of double-dip last year where the current world number one surged to the top of the money list on both sides of the Atlantic.
Woods termed Donald’s double-dip as "heck of an achievement” but showered extraordinary praise and respect to the late Seve Ballesteros who died of brain tumour last year.
Woods said, "Never seen a person do the things with the golf ball that he was able to do and the creativeness that he was able to do. I was able to play with him a few times, it was impressive".
Woods had a lacklustre opening round on the first day of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and will be hoping to regain his composure heading in the weekend.
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