Tiger To Top $1 Billion In '09 Even Without Buick's Help

Ron Sirak authors Golf Digest's annual look at overpaid aggressively compensated golfers and as usual, the numbers are staggering. ($3.5 million in off course earnings for Rory Sabbatini? Rory Sabbatini!). I look at this list and say, wow, Leno is a bargain at $17 million a year.

Twenty-two players have made the list all six years of its existence, led again by Tiger Woods with $117,337,626 in on-course and off-course earnings, moving him within $115 million of becoming golf's first $1 billion player (see chart below). And even Woods is not immune from the economic turmoil. His contract with General Motors, which earned him nearly $50 million over nine years, was terminated by mutual consent at the end of 2008 with a year left to run.

But despite the economic situation, it appears companies will stay active with athletes and the games they play for one simple reason: It makes business sense. The PR difficulty of investing in athletes during tough times "certainly is a perception issue," says David Carter, University of Southern California sports-business professor and founder of Sport Business Group, a strategic-marketing firm based in Los Angeles.