Back in 1975, the total prize fund on the European Tour amounted to Euro855,000 in today's money, whereas 30 years later in 2005, it had mushroomed to Euro115m. Last season, every one of the top 20 players in the Order of Merit earned over Euro1m. And that was just on the course.

This is the year when the PGA Tour is offering a $10m prize to the winner of its new fangled FedEx Cup playoffs. Basically, the top 144 players in the cup standings will advance to a series of four play-off tournaments next August and September culminating in the Tour Championship, after which the overall points leader will pocket the cash.

However, it's not as if the play-offs represent the only opportunity for PGA Tour members, with its ever increasing representation from Europe, to target big pay-days. Outside of the $10m FedEx Cup sweetener, players in America will be competing for a massive $265m - double the prize fund which was on offer as recently as 1999.

And with ever-increasing amounts of cash washing through the game, consider the case of Des Smyth. During the guts of 30 years on the European Tour, Smyth's earnings came to approximately Euro2.5m, while in the past four seasons on the Champions Tour, he has already made Euro3m.

Smyth has modestly pointed out that with the rise in the cost of living, the two figures don't make for a viable comparison. He has a point, but he also has to admit that thanks to a burgeoning Champions Tour which now boasts a prize fund of just over $50m, and to the continuing excellence of his own game, he has probably never had it so good.

At the top end, there is no question that Woods has been the catalyst for the huge increase in the PGA Tour's prize money and in its revenues from television. Golf Digest magazine has estimated the world number one's earnings for 2006 at $99m of which a paltry $12m was generated by on-course winnings. The remainder came from endorsement deals, including his especially lucrative contract with Nike, as well as from appearance fees, course design, branded video games, books and instructional videos. When Woods and Phil Mickelson, whose 2006 earnings came to $45m according to Golf Digest, both opted out of last November's Tour Championship in Atlanta, the current US Open champion, Geoff Oglivy, was quick to defend the world game's two leading lights.

"Where would the PGA Tour be without Tiger and Phil?" asked the Australian. "We'd be playing for $2.5m a week, we'd have 20 tournaments and no one would be watching on TV. We'd be back where we were 15 years ago."

There was also money in the wings for Harrington who, if Golf Digest's computations are close to the mark, made an estimated $12.5m last year with a split of $4.5m on-course and an impressive $8m off-course.

Meanwhile, Jim Furyk who had a superb 2006 with two victories and 11 top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour which grossed him over $7m apparently, made a further $6m including performance bonuses from his equipment contract with Srixon.

If Colin Montgomerie is perceived to be on the wane, and if he is now unlikely to win that elusive major championship, his relative decline doesn't appear to have affected his earning power. As of now, the Scot has deals with Yonex, Lacoste, Starwood Hotels, Sky Sports and the Daily Telegraph, as well as a design company which has projects on the go in six different countries.

And even if she is a marketeer's dream, it is impossible to envisage Michelle Wie being as bankable if Woods hadn't created a booming commercial climate around golf. Without ever having won a tournament of note, the teenager from Hawaii made nearly $20m off the course last year.

While appearance money is off-limits on the European and the PGA tours, the leading players and their agents have found ways to circumvent officialdom. For the $3m Woods charges for a tournament in the Far East, he will glad-handle the sponsor's clients and do some promotional work. Ditto Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Sergio Garcia for a lesser fee, of course.

In 2005 it was reported that Vijay Singh, Harrington, Goosen and Garcia were paid $600,000 between them for a corporate day with Ford's clients in the lead-up to the tournament at Doral near Miami. The year before, in order to secure a strong field for their event, the Lumber 84 Classic was offering six first-class plane tickets to Ireland as an incentive for players travelling to the American Express Championship at Mount Juliet.

Players might have to work a little harder for some extra cash than in the past, but appearance money - dressed up as promotional work - is alive and well for an elite coterie.

If life is less lucrative for the majority of tournament professionals, golf still represents a land of opportunity.

Peter Lawrie had to graft his way through the Asian and the Challenge Tours to become the first Irish player to win the European Tour Rookie of the Year award in 2003, and while he has yet to register a victory, he has earned Euro1.5m in prize money alone in the past four seasons.

Similarly, Damien McGrane set himself a target of breaking out of the domestic club professional circuit and competing on Europe's main tour, and despite only reaching his goal at the age of 32, he has won Euro1.3m since 2003.

For Claire Coughlan, Martina Gillen and Rebecca Coakley, the Ladies European Tour has a prize fund of Euro11m this year, and although the likes of Stephen Browne and Michael Hoey lost their European Tour cards last season, at least they have a fall-back of the established Challenge Tour with a total of Euro5m to play for.

Needless to say, cautionary tales also abound. Going into the final European Tour event last season in Majorca with his card on the line, Gary Murphy had more than just his playing privileges for 2007 to worry about.

There was the not inconsiderable matter of the mortgage repayments on a new house in Kilkenny, while if he lost his card, there was also the likelihood of losing his sponsorship deals.

Meanwhile, times were so tough for Keith Nolan after two seasons of failure on the PGA Tour that he went out to work part-time in a Starbucks coffee shop near his home in Knoxville, Tennessee. This year, Nolan has his card for the Nationwide Tour and the chance to play for a prize fund of just over $50m.

When the highly promising Oliver Fisher turned professional in November, he signed deals with Nike and BMW. Guy Kinnings, director of golf at Fisher's management company, IMG, said the English 18-year-old had the "looks, the personality and the charisma to become one of the most soughtafter properties in golf".

Talent is non-negotiable, but more than ever we are in the age of the tournament professional as a lucrative commodity. For Rory McIlroy, who joins the paid ranks in September, the timing, it seems, is perfect.