Is it any wonder the megabucks US Tour should act like a magnet, almost a do-it-yourself printing press, for foreign invaders? In winning the Chrysler Classic at Greensboro on Sunday, Japan's Shigeki Maruyama became the eighth non-American player to win this season
- sharing 13 titles between them - and, indeed, became the fourth player on the tour to win at least one tournament in each of the last three seasons.
Known as the Smilin' Assassin, Maruyama - who will be on the International team for the President's Cup match with the USA in South Africa next month - has battled with back and neck problems for much of this season. "I wasn't expecting to play this kind of golf . . . my putting was the big thing, this was the best putting of my whole life," said Maruyama, who averaged 25.3 putts per round in finishing with a 67 for 22-under-par 266, five shots clear of Brad Faxon.
Maruyama's victory allowed him to join other non-American winners on the US Tour this season in Ernie Els (two), Vijay Singh (three), Mike Weir (three), Rory Sabbatini, Darren Clarke, Adam Scott and Stuart Appleby and puts him into contention for a place in the season-ending Tour Championship in a fortnight's time. Only the top 30 on the money list make the lucrative event.
Prior to his win in Greensboro, Maruyama was 76th on the Order of Merit but his latest success, the third of his career in the US, moved him to 35th. "A couple of weeks ago, I was just trying to make the top 125th on the money list." Maruyama improved 35 positions on this week's official world golf ranking. He also overtook Toshimitsu Izawa to reclaim his position as the top-ranked Japanese player in the world.
While Maruyama has his sights set on making that elite field for the Tour Championship, the objective of finishing the year as the leading money winner will be on the minds of Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Davis Love - the current top three in the race - when they tee-up in this week's Walt Disney tournament in Orlando.
Woods - with $6,278,746 in prize money - leads the way, but Singh is just $171,239 behind the world number one, while Love is also just about within striking distance. All three are playing in Orlando, with only one more tournament next - another Chrysler sponsored event - before the season-ending Tour Championship will officially decide the leading money winner. Woods has finished leading money winner on five of the last six occasions, the exception being 1998.
Meanwhile, Nick Price and Annika Sorenstam were last night inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in ceremonies in Florida. Joining them were Hisako "Chako" Higuchi, who was once Japan's pre-eminent women's player, and the late Leo Diegel, who won back-to-back US PGA titles in the late 1920s.
Price (46), has three majors among his 18 US Tour wins and 23 wins worldwide - he won the US PGA in 1992 and 1994 and the British Open in 1994.
Sorenstam, at 32, is one of the youngest players ever inducted into the Hall of Fame. She completed the final eligibility requirement for the honour when she played her first round in the Samsung World Championship last week, which marked her 10th season on the US LPGA tour.
She won her first title at the US Women's Open in 1995 - one of six majors she has won - and she completed the career Grand Slam this year when winning the LPGA and the Women's British Open.
Last year, she became the first woman to shoot 59 in competition.
