World Golf Tucson

It's over, Matt Kuchar has claimed victory at the World Golf Championship Match Play tournament. Now they all head down the road to the next stop on the professional golf tour.

Here are a couple of observations from "behind the ropes" of the tournament.

It is fun to attend - and I've been to a few golf tournaments in my time. Best part, not thousands of people to fight for space.

The winner gets a beautiful trophy (oh and a check for $1,500,000). Second place gets a measly $875,000. 3rd $615,000. 4th $500,000. And so on down the ladder. If you were one of the 64 lucky to get here you got $46,000, if you moved to the 2nd round that became $96,000, if you moved on to the 3rd round you got $144,000, if you made to the 4th round $275,000.

You don't hear them talk about that much on the TV - it would take a lot of luster from the "competition". The TV signals are beamed from this cluster of satellite dishes...



Cadillac Escalades wait to take away the winners and losers when a match is over (these are waiting in the gully off the 16th green).



Then the players leave the grounds and head for airports - some on chartered planes, some traveling like the rest of us.

Oh, I checked...Tiger Woods is said to own a Gulfstream 550. Flying operating cost is estimated at $2,300 an hour. Flying time from West Palm Beach to Tucson (nonstop of course) is about 4 hours. So he puts 8 hours of flying time on the bird. So the plane ride cost about $18,000. He only got $45,000, because he lost in the first round. That leaves some pocket change!

Good event. Good time.