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By John Maginnes
PGATOUR.com Contributor

HUMBLE, Texas -- Before you know it, men will stop to ask directions when they are lost and give up the remote control and start watching commercials. OK, the world isn't quite that far off its axis yet, but it could happen. If you take a look around you, it is not hard to see just how far out of kilter our value system in this world has become.

Compared to athletes in other sports, Tiger's earnings aren't all that impressive. (Greenwood/WireImage)

I hear complaints all the time about the amount of money that my friends on the PGA TOUR are making these days. My only complaint is that they still don't pick up the check at dinner. Remember it was only 10 years ago that a player could keep his card with less than $200,000 in earnings. In 1996 I lost in a playoff at Callaway Gardens and earned $66,000. At the time I thought that I had won the lottery. For the year I made just over $180,000 and kept my card. After expenses and taxes, I made a little more than the guy who ran the McDonalds around the corner from my house.

I knew then, as I do now, that the culture that allowed me to make even that sum had veered off course. When a guy can make more in a year playing a game than a nurse or a school teacher makes in their entire career something is amiss. Knowing that doesn't change things, I certainly don't have a solution. But I wanted to state my perspective before I get on my soapbox.

Maybe comparing one inequity to another is trifling. However, yesterday the USA Today sports section listed the rosters and salaries of all the players in the NBA. As I became increasing disgusted I realized that the players were not to blame. If someone is stupid enough to pay Eric Dampier of the Dallas Mavericks $9.6 million a year you can't blame Eric. After all, he did score four points Wednesday night. And Mark Cuban has "wow-I-can-do-whatever-the-heck-I-want .com" money.

I have said it before and I will say it again. There are 30 NBA teams, each carrying a 15-man roster. Essentially what that means is that there are twice as many players in the NBA as there are players on the PGA TOUR. On TOUR there are no guaranteed contracts and every player pays his own expenses. Yes, there are endorsement dollars. Even the middle of the road TOUR player has enough endorsements coming in to offset his travel budget. But that doesn't even compare with the money in other sports.

In the NBA, according to the USA Today article, the top-25 scorers average $11.7 million per year in salary with Kevin Garnett topping the heap with $21 million. Not counting endorsements, Tiger Woods made less than $10 million in 2006. Unless you count last place money in the World Golf Championships as guaranteed income the PGA TOUR promised Tiger a grand total of zero dollars in prize money for 2007.

Not that we are going to hold any telethons for the world No. 1. I just wanted to point out the contrast. Tiger is arguably the most famous athlete in the world. Yes, he has created a vast empire that includes philanthropy and industry. Not only that, he has changed the face of the game that he leads.

At the end of the year some PGA TOUR player will receive a $10-million bonus for winning the inaugural FedExCup playoffs. If Tiger wins the same amount of money this year as he did a year ago and he wins the FedExCup, he still won't get to Kevin Garnett in earnings before endorsements.

Sports are entertainment and entertainers make money at the professional level. But don't you find it interesting that on Final Four weekend that the salaries of the NBA players were listed? Just as college athletes, most of who will never make the NBA, watch and take center stage.

There are so many things about the information age that confound me. I don't even pretend to understand. The more I look around at the sports world at large the more proud I am to have dedicated my life to the game of golf. That won't stop me from catching every play of the Final Four semifinals on Saturday night. If I get lost on the way to the sports bar I promise to stop and ask directions. As for the remote control, dream on.

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