Columnist Dean Juipe: Money list concerns spur tour players

Dean Juipe

Monday, Oct. 8, 2001 | 9:35 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

For the most part, the big stars of men's professional golf have already made their money for the year. They're fat and sassy, and not particularly interested in how the remainder of the 2001 PGA Tour season plays out.

As a result, players currently in the top 10 in earnings such as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, David Duval, Vijay Singh, Scott Hoch, David Toms and Sergio Garcia are among the many skipping this week's Invensys Classic at Las Vegas, which opens Wednesday at three local courses.

In fact, 17 men who have won tournaments on the current schedule -- including Toms, who won Sunday's Michelob Championship in Williamsburg, Va. -- are bypassing Las Vegas. But 14 tournament winners will be here, for what is the 43rd of 47 tour events on the 2001 calendar.

As has become apparent, Las Vegas' spot in the tour rotation is neither ideal nor to be demeaned. With $4.5 million in prize money available -- in what is still one of the richest events on the tour -- the Invensys provides a sufficient financial incentive for those players looking to better their position on the tour's money list.

The Invensys money is exceptional even if the field is somewhat diluted.

So what we get are a bunch of guys on either side of the No. 30 spot on the tour's money list, each looking to finish in the top 30 and qualify for a number of perks including a spot in the Mercedes Championship that opens the following year's schedule. We also get virtually every player who can obtain a spot in the field who is near or within sight of the top 125 money winners, as only those players are fully exempt the following year.

This gives the Invensys the feel of a "tournament within a tournament," in that even players well off the leaders' pace can be counted on to give their best. Their incentive for playing here, for making the cut and for winning as much money as they can, is the knowledge that there's a night-and-day difference between finishing No. 30 as opposed to No. 31 on the final money list, just as that same difference exists between those who make the top 125 and those who do not.

This rush to finish strong has already begun and was evident at the Michelob tournament in Virginia. Toms' third win of the year caps a wonderful season that also included the PGA Championship, and makes him an outside threat for Player of the Year honors.

But he's pretty much done for the year now.

Of the 72 players who made the cut in Williamsburg, 43 have accepted the task of coming back across the continent to play in Las Vegas. Most are doing it because they feel they have to.

The tour really imposes a physical hardship on its players and staff for a one-month period that includes the Invensys, as consecutive events in Texas, Virginia, Nevada and Florida (next week) make for a logistical and practical nightmare.

Yet the hopscotch schedule is tolerated, if not embraced, simply because of what's at stake.

By the same token, those comfortable with their position on the money list can avoid the mad scramble and bypass the informal Tour of America that the final weeks of the season have become.

It leads to a not unfamiliar role for Las Vegas: Everyone here this week is extremely conscious of his funds.