Columnist Peter Benton: PGA Tour features $5 million paydays

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

This and that from the PGA Tour:

The inaugural World Golf Championships will be part of the 1999 Tour schedule, with each event having a $5 million purse.

The first to be played will be the World Golf Championships, known as the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship. Featuring the top 64 players from the Official World Golf Rankings, the event will be played Feb. 24-28 at the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.

In August, the WGC-NEC Invitational, featuring members of the last-named Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup teams, will be played at Firestone C.C. in Akron, Ohio.

The third World Golf Championship, the WGC-American Express Championship, will be contested in November at Valderrama, Spain. It will feature the top players from each of the five major PGA Tours.

* RENO TOUR STOP: The Reno-Tahoe Open, which will be played at Montreux C.C., has been added to the PGA Tour schedule. It will be played Aug. 23-29, opposite the WGC-NEC Invitational.

The Reno-Tahoe Open is the first addition to the schedule since the Greater Vancouver Open (now the Air Canada Championship) in 1996.

* WATSON MILESTONE: When Tom Watson won $165,000 for his runner-up finish in the 1998 Phoenix Open, it marked the 25th consecutive year he has earned more than $100,000 -- the all-time PGA Tour record.

* MILLION MEN MARCH: A record 26 players topped $1 million in season earnings last year, nine better than the previous record set in 1997.

Three players eclipsed $2 million, led by David Duval, whose $2,591,031 established the Tour record for a single season.

* HUSTON DOESN'T HAVE A PROBLEM: John Huston made 10 times more money in 1998 than he did in 1997, the largest one-season official earnings gain in PGA Tour history.

Huston made $1,544,110, or nearly $1.4 million more than the $151,840 he earned in 1997. Billy Mayfair previously held the record with a $1,385,033 gain between 1994 and 1995.

* BREAKING THROUGH: There were eight first-time winners on the 1998 Tour. Jasper Parnevik was the first with his victory in the Phoenix Open.

He was followed by Lee Westwood (Freeport McDermott Classic); Trevor Dodds (Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic); J.P. Hayes (Buick Classic); Joe Durant (Motorola Western Open); Olin Browne (Canon Greater Hartford Open); Brandel Chamblee (Greater Vancouver Open); and Chris Perry (B.C. Open).

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