It is staggering to think the American Tour can play in New Orleans for a prize-fund over US$6 million without Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Anthony Kim being in the field - or even contemplating being in the field.

The riches available to the modern player come largely on the back of Tiger Woods and the tour's negotiations with the television networks from whence so much of the money comes.

How long it can go on when the ratings are far from stellar is debatable but for the networks there are simply two layers of events - those Woods (and to a lesser extent, Mickelson) plays - and those he does not.

Jason Bohn was the winner by a couple of shots over Jeff Overton and he did play some brilliant golf over the final quartet of holes where he made three birdies and a lone par, after a fine tee shot, at the difficult par three, seventeenth.

Greg Chalmers was fifth alone at 12 under, and $256,000 is one of those big cheques every player needs to place decently at the end of the season. It is also an amazing amount of money to make for a fifth-place finish but Chalmers has had his share of tough years when he was back grinding on the Nationwide Tour.

He was fourth in the amazing Tiger Woods-Bob May PGA Championship in 2000 at Valhalla and that great week was less than a couple of years after his Australian Open win at Royal Adelaide. He looked to be flying but an erratic driver sentenced him to some miserable years and to get back to this level has been a triumph of perseverance.

Stuart Appleby was good again, only a shot behind Chalmers, alone sixth place. This column spoke about him last week and another good finish must be doing wonders for his confidence.

Three of our younger players, Matt Jones, Aron Price and Jarrod Lyle finished in a tie for 10th and for Lyle that is most significant. He is playing a limited main tour schedule on a medical exemption and that means he has a predetermined number of starts - related to the number of weeks he missed last season - to make the same amount of money the 125th player did last season. If he does that - and I think he needs somewhere around $350,000 - he can keep playing.

The significance of a top 10 finish is that he automatically earns a place the following week's field (and if that is a limited field event it will be the next full field tournament) and that extra event does not count as one of the seven or eight he is able to play as a result of the injury, or illness.

He has made around $250,000 in his three tour starts so he has given himself a terrific opportunity to make what he needs but professional golfers playing out of desperation understand the grinding pressure of having to make cuts and checks to keep a career alive.

Half-way around the world in what sounded like a blustery and cold week in Korea, Victorian Marcus Fraser won the co-sanctioned European and Asian tour event when he finished four shots ahead of West Australian, Brett Rumford.

With so much attention focused on America, there is a tendency to lose sight of what is happening in Europe and Asia. The two tours are inextricably linked and it ought to tell something about the future that the European Tour plays more events in China than it does in England.

Unbelievably, the British PGA Championship is the only tournament in England this year and it takes hardly any imagination to see what influence Asia and China will have on the future of professional golf and the potential of a true World Tour.

In an obvious way that reality is directly related to the American tour and what the television companies decide is a fair and reasonable amount to pay for the broadcasting rights.

The world of professional golf is quickly moving toward the huge markets in Asia and sooner rather than later it will look quite a bit different than it does currently.