For a few dollars more

After the season has ended, the pros can still rake in a lot of money by turning up for team and publicity events all the year around.

This weekend, golf fans will get to watch Vijay Singh play at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon. Vijay, after raking in a record $10 million plus in earnings and nine title wins, will be here to add some change to his kitty by literally skinning his rivals at the BILT Skins Challenge. While he was in India in 2002, this is his first trip after toppling Tiger Woods to clinch the No. 1 position.

While we haven't had the chance to see Tiger Woods play in India, it would be a real treat to see the man who beat him swing in the greens.

Vijay has always had a soft spot for Indian players. At the Singapore Masters in 2001, he made it a point to spend time with the players over dinners and even played a practice round.

With the season ending and the Money List honour in his bag, Vijay now awaits the official announcement of the Player of the Year award. But anyone familiar with the Fijian player's regimen would know that he will soon be back at his sprawling home in Ponte Vedra to hit 500 balls a day at his private range.

The Skins format, like the one adopted for the BILT Skins Challenge, is designed for television viewing. Vijay will play with British Open champion Todd Hamilton, the talented Justin Rose and Daniel Chopra, for a total purse of $ 100,000. Needless to say, all the four players will get a hefty appearance fee but obviously none more than Vijay. He may well be commanding a fee of over a million dollars for the two-day event, which will also host a Pro-Am event on the first day.

The golf season on most of the Major tours like in the US (both the PGA and Nationwide) and in Europe is over. It is in process of winding up in Japan and on the Ladies PGA. The Asian season, too, has very few events left. The Indian season, however, begins in August and ends in late April or early May, and therefore, is in full swing. For professional golfers anyway, the year does not end with these regular Tours.

After having ensured the right place on the Money List and the right starts for the next season, it is time for fun golf and lots of money again. This is the time when the pros get ready for team events, shootouts, Skins and other different but interesting formats.

Apart from fattening the bank balances, these events serve the purpose of ramping up Sports Channels' TRP ratings. Many of the events such as Shootouts and Skins are ideal for TV viewing.

Tiger Woods will play in the Skins Game and the Target World Challenge while Vijay, apart from his Indian commitment, has the PGA Grand Slam and the Father-Son Challenge to look forward to. Then there will be Wendy's 3-Tour challenge.

Meanwhile, other players too will be chasing some easy money at the UBS Cup or the Shark Shootout. There is also the $3.5-million event in Korea's Jeju island. While the top 20 PGA Tour players have been invited to play in Korea, many have declined to attend the event.

The biggest lures are the free tickets and hotel accomodation and, of course, the winner's purse of $1 million. The last place in the 39-man event, reduced from an original field of 60, will get upwards of $20,000.

Many of the stars will also turn up for the World Cup end of this month, which has more than

$4 million at stake for 24 two-man teams. Even the last placed couple will get close to $40,000.

Earlier this week, a four-man US team consisting of Hank Kuehne, Chad Campbell, Zach Johnson and Chris Riley emerged as the winners at the Tommy Bahama Challenge. Later this week, Kuehne and Jeff Sluman will defend their Franklin Templeton shootout title, which saw them split $550,000 between themselves last year.

It is also during this time that Singapore hosts a Skins event. Last year, it saw Retief Goosen, Annika Sorenstam, Jesper Parnevik and local boy Lam Chih Bing play for the Tiger Skins with $250,000 at stake over two days.

All these events make for a nice spread of jam after all the bread and butter collected during the main season.