Last autumn appearance for Texas Open
---
CADDIE IN THE BOOTH: Instead of glaring at cameras, Steve Williams will be speaking in front of them.
The caddie for Tiger Woods will make his debut as a TV analyst during the Kiwi Challenge in his New Zealand homeland, which will feature Anthony Kim, Hunter Mahan, Brandt Snedeker and the only non-American, Adam Scott of Australia. They will play 36 holes, on Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers, with the winner of the stroke-play event receiving $1.5 million (?1.1 million) of the $2.6 million (?1.9 million) purse.
The tournament will be played from Oct. 27-28.
"This is my first experience at this," Williams said. "I'm doing this because the Kiwi Challenge will bring great exposure for New Zealand and give New Zealanders the opportunity to see four of the world's best players in one group. Seldom would we have four players of this quality at a tournament."
---
PLAYOFF BEARD: Mike Weir sported a "playoff beard" at The Barclays in August, right about the time developers from Electronic Arts' "Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09" showed up to capture his image for the video game.
The beard was gone a week later, and it didn't last long on the video game.
"He kind of wanted it to be more clean-cut," Travis Sailer, assistant designer on the game, told Canadian Press. "That's what he normally goes with. So we actually worked with him and worked with our modelers in the game and got it so that we wiped away his beard a little bit for him."
---
MONEY MATTERS: Tiger Woods earned $5,775,000 in six tournaments this year. That's more than Jack Nicklaus made ($5,734,031) in his 594 starts on the U.S. PGA Tour.
---
DIVOTS: Greg Norman has appointed Frank Nobilo of New Zealand his assistant captain for the Presidents Cup next year in San Francisco. They played on two Presidents Cup teams together. ... Dustin Johnson led the field in driving distance at Turning Stone last week, becoming the first player to win a U.S. PGA Tour event with the longest driving average since Tiger Woods at Firestone in 2007.
---
STAT: Including his FedEx Cup bonus, Vijay Singh made $15,165,163 (?11,200,000) over the final two months of the season.
Copyright 2012 by STATS LLC and The Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and The Associated Press is strictly prohibited.
