You think we could get Tiger to come to Regina Beach

Did you know that some of the high profile golfers get appearance fees to play in certain tournaments? The first time I heard about this was a number of years ago when Greg Norman was paid $1 million to play in some out-of-the-way tournament. He got the money just for showing up regardless of how he played. Where do I sign up for this!

This week Tiger is playing in Australia for the first time in 11 years. The Golf Channel website reported yesterday that Australia is paying him $3 million dollars just to step off his private jet onto Australian soil! And to top it off, the Australian government is paying half the fee.

Some people might be appalled by this. You've heard the rhetoric before, "professional athletes make too much money". It is true that there are much better causes than paying Tiger to hang out at your golf club. Just think about how many hungry people you could feed with $3 million.

But check this out. In The Golf Channel article, John Brumby, premier of the Australian province of Victoria, where the tournament is being played, stated that Tiger's appearance would have an economic return of at least $19 million. If your ultimate goal is to 'do good', you can do a lot more good with $19 million than you can with 3. What Australia does with the money is anybodies guess but if I had $3 million and could turn it into 19 just by having some guy step off a plane, I'd do it to.

And just a side note. Tiger won't just take the 3 million bones and burn it in his fireplace. He puts a lot of his money into the Tiger Woods Foundation which helps underprivileged kids. The rest of his earnings, now estimated by Forbes to be over $1 billion since he turned professional, are in the system somewhere generating economic activity which creates jobs which, you guessed it, feeds the hungry.

So take a pill, folks, and enjoy the tournament.

I wonder if we could entice him to come to Regina Beach, hehe.