Tiger's too busy to join in the hunt for Dubai riches

That is the case for Tiger Woods, who marked his return to golf yesterday by revealing he will not be taking up membership of the European Tour any time soon and so will not be eligible for that notable sum when it goes on offer at the Dubai World Championship in 2009.

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If that sounds a devastating blow before the game's richest event has even reached the final planning stage, then there is a glass half-full scenario.

At least there is a chance of the loot being won by a player for whom it would actually mean something.

The new tournament will be open to the top 60 after the season- long Race to Dubai.

A £1m bonus will be paid to the player who remains in pole position at the end of the final event, with £800,000 on offer to the winner of the Dubai tournament itself.

The chances of one going hand in hand with the other are high, but to be eligible a player must compete in at least 11 Tour-sanctioned events, and for Woods that is too many.

"I've contemplated joining the European Tour since I started going over in 1999," he said on the eve of the tournament he hosts in California, the Target Challenge.

"But there's no way I can keep up the commitment level that I have by playing that much golf on both tours and all the things I have to deal with at a venue. It would wear me out."

Woods probably expected to be asked about Dubai, given all the conjecture when the event was announced last month.

What he could not have seen coming was the poser from a glamorous British television 'reporter' who wanted to know whether her boyfriend was gay for mentioning Woods's name every time they had sex.

If this sounds a considerable improvement on some bore asking Woods what iron he struck to the 14th, you can hardly blame the horrified press officer for taking a different view and frogmarching her off the premises.

As for Woods's reaction, well one American put it beautifully: "He recovered and dismissed her like she was Rory Sabbatini."

For the first seven weeks of the longest break of his career, he never touched a club.

In an interesting role reversal, while wife Elin went skiing, he stayed at home and looked after their baby daughter, Sam.

"Incredible how fast they change and grow, isn't it?" Woods said, proving even dollar billionaires have a soppy side.

"The thing I've noticed most about becoming a father is how you appreciate the little things.

"Even the sleepless nights and the difficulties sometimes when she gets sick.

"I said when my father passed away that I felt like I didn't spend enough time with him, even though I was there as much as I could. I wanted to be sure that I truly appreciated these days with my daughter."

It was three weeks ago that the first pangs of desire from the day job started to kick in.

"It's always the same when I pick up the clubs after a long break," he said. "The first time I hit it like God. Then I become a five-handicapper, then like someone who plays off 18.

"In the last two weeks I've tried to get back to looking like someone who plays off zero."

Most of his so-called rivals looked like 18 handicappers as well while he was away, or at least when it came to winning tournaments.

There was Phil Mickelson in China, Adam Scott in Australia, and Justin Rose and Ernie Els in successive events in South Africa. So Woods returns looking more impregnable than ever.

Rather typically, when asked to bask in yet another U.S. Player of the Year award, he chose to dwell on the two majors that slipped away, the Masters and the U.S. Open.

Before he turns to making amends, there is a gentle end-of-season return — a 16-man tourney featuring a strong British Isles presence in Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood and Open champion Padraig Harrington.

Woods might not want to join Europe. But when he is playing Santa and doling out cheques of at least £85,000, plenty from Europe are happy to join him.