Is golf an expensive game?

How much have you spent over the last twelve months on our glorious game?

It's been an unusual year for me as I got back into it properly and bought a whole set of clubs so I have spent approx £600 on clubs, currently paying £65 pm on membership and will probably spend £60pm on drinks and a bite after the game. then of course there are days playing in societies and the like at other courses.

Golf balls? I'm guessing in the region of £200 for the year.

Total estimate for the last twelve months - £2,500. Ouch!

Donald ‘saviour of classics’ Trump

Donald Trump posing with golf club

As much as I dislike all aspects of Donald Trump's project in Aberdeenshire his desire to hold an open championship does pose an interesting question.

For me it is centred around how much I value pro golf and how important pandering to pro golf is over maintaining the game for the everyday player. My first reaction to his desire to hold the open at his new Aberdeenshire course was ‘the man's a fruit loop, the open should never leave the classic venues’.

My second thought was why should a second rate course get the honour of holding the open above classics like St Georges and TOC. However if you think about it, the current pro game is so far removed from the roots of golf, is this really an issue?

I am not sure if this idea holds but I am starting to think that the future of the open should be at venues like Trump's, Castle Stuart or Dundonald. Changing the 17th at TOC certainly strengthens the argument for me. I have a fear that in the coming years as the ball gets more an more out of control the classic courses on the open rota may be altered to the detriment of 99% of the people who play them, i.e. the average golfer, for the benefit of the pro’s coming to town every 10 years.

I see using these new courses as a preservation technique to make sure the work’s of Harry Colt, Old Tom, JH Taylor, Hawtree, Fowler and Mackenzie remain intact for generations to come. This of course ignores the fact that future generations may not benefit from some of the rarest dunesland in the world. But hey, what’s more important golf or the environment?

If pro golf needs a goofy course like winged foot to have a tight finish topped with more than a smidgen of farce I propose Trump's dunes as the perfect golfing super bowl venue.

Open Championship purse confirmed

Next week's British Open Championship at Turnberry has bucked the downward trend in golf by offering the same purse as last year: £4.2 million.

The winner will take home a cool £750,000.

However, due to the pound's increase in value against the dollar, any potential American champion would take home $282,236 less than 2008's championship at Royal Birkdale.

Golfers are America's richest athletes

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson once again top SI.com's Fortunate 50 list of the 50 highest earning athletes in America.

However the average income for athletes has dropped for the first time in six years, though it still weighs in at a cool $23.6 million.

Tiger Woods earned just under $100 million whilst "Lefty" Phil Mickelson earned $52 million. Despite the huge sums of money, this represents a drop for both involved as on-course prize money drops as well as off-course endorsement deals dry up.

Woods has lost a lucrative Buick deal whilst Mickelson lost a deal with Ford. This can largely be blamed on the global economic downturn.

The only other golfer to make the list was Jim Furyk at #41 - he earned $16.2 million.

For more info, go here.

Tiger Woods on track to become first billionaire athlete

Forbes magazine reports Tiger Woods is on track to make a billion dollars by 2010. Woods has earned around $115 million in 2007 alone, and Forbes credit the golfer with annualized investment returns of 8%.

Woods was a child prodigy golfer and much was expected of him before he turned pro in 1996, he was already a household name by 1998's Open Championship at Birkdale - also the venue for next week's event.

But not all of this fortune has been amassed through his sports earnings, in fact most of it has come from endorsements. Woods has numerous sponsorship deals, most notably with Nike, Gillette and Buick. These are estimated to have made him over $750 million over the course of his career.

Woods is expected to become the first athlete in the world to reach the $1 billion figure.