Woods tops $100 million in earnings

[September 04, 2012]  NORTON, Mass. (AP) -- Tiger Woods has become the first $100 million man on the PGA Tour.

Woods finished third in the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday to earn $544,000 and push his career total to $100,350,700. Next on the list is Phil Mickelson -- more than $30 million behind at $66,805,498 after finishing fourth at the TPC Boston.

"The purse increase helps," Woods said after a final-round 66 left him two strokes behind winner Rory McIlroy in the second week of the four-tournament FedEx Cup playoff. "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."

Snead, the career leader with 82 PGA Tour victories, earned just $620,126 in a career that started in 1937. His biggest prize was $28,000 for a second-place finish in Milwaukee in 1968, and for most of his prime he played in tournaments with a total purse -- that's all the payouts combined -- of less than $100,000.

Woods has won 74 tournaments, second all-time, including 38 times with a first prize of $1 million or more. His winnings come out to an average of $362,276.89 for each of his 277 career starts.

But it's not just good timing: Prize money skyrocketed on the PGA Tour after Woods went pro and brought huge crowds and television audiences to the sport.

"It was nice to have a nice start to my career, and I won some majors early," he said. "I think we got some interest in the game of golf. A lot more youth, that's for sure."

This weekend's Deutsche Bank paid out $8 million, including the $1.44 million that went to McIlroy for his third victory of the year.

By finishing strong -- he was in the 60s in all four rounds -- Woods remains in contention for the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus, which he has won twice. That money isn't even included in his official career earnings, nor is the hundreds of millions he has collected in endorsements.

[Associated Press; By JIMMY GOLEN]

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