Tiger Woods‘ game certainly seems to be on the uptick at the moment. In the past few weeks, Woods posted his best finish of the season — third-place at the Australian Open — and followed up the strong showing by clinching the deciding point for the U.S. at the Presidents Cup.
Yep, everything seems to be coming together nicely for Tiger. Aside from his play on the course, he’s also back to making record appearance fees once again. As The Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson said in a recent story, Woods is on track to make upwards of $3 million for just showing up to play the HSBC Championship in Abu Dhabi.
One week after Woods took heat for dropping his usual tour stop at Torrey Pines in 2012 — a course and tournament he’s dominated over the years — for a tournament halfway around the globe, it’s clear the move, as most expected, was made with the almighty buck in mind.
Honestly, who can blame the guy for not passing up that kind of money? Jason Dufner made just over $3 million in earnings this season on the PGA Tour. If you could pocket that much just for showing up to an event? Well, you’d almost be crazy not to take the money and run — even if you happened to be Tiger Woods.
But Tiger’s decision to skip a PGA Tour stop for the European Tour doesn’t mean we’ll be seeing less of him in the states in 2012. Ferguson also reported that all signs point to Tiger making a return to the Pebble Beach Pro-Am next year, a tournament he hasn’t played in since 2002.