PGA Tour Notebook: Faxon and Pavin using exemptions to play in 2010

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- As many as seven players could be taking an exemption from the career money list to keep their PGA Tour cards.

Brad Faxon (No. 37) and Corey Pavin (No. 48) already have notified the tour they will take a one-time exemption for being among the top 50 in career earnings.

The tour is waiting to hear from two players who already have used a one-time exemption from the top 25 in career money and still have the top 50 option -- 50-year-old Tom Lehman (No. 21) and Chris DiMarco (No. 22).

Stuart Appleby (No. 15) expects to decide in the next few weeks whether to use his first career-money exemption or try to get by on sponsor exemptions and his conditional status.

Jesper Parnevik is No. 46 in career money and entered in the final stage of Q-School. He likely will use his exemption if he fails to make it through Q-School or is ranked low coming out of Q-School. Tim Herron (No. 42) also is in the final stage of Q-School and could lean on his exemption if he doesn't make it.

THE TIGER CHART: Tiger Woods had not been to Australia in 11 years, giving him the occasion to set the record straight on that chart of Jack Nicklaus he had taped up in his bedroom as a kid.

"People have kind of exaggerated the record list," Woods said.

He said it contained only four or five items and was more of a timeline -- when Nicklaus took up golf, when he first broke 40, when he won his first junior event, his first U.S. Amateur and when he turned pro.

"It was just a benchmark for me growing up that here's the greatest player of all time and this is what he did when he was 13, 17, 18," Woods said. "As a junior, you're always trying to compare yourself to, 'When did he do it?' And hopefully, I can do something a little bit better and maybe that might springboard myself into having a good career.

"It has turned out OK."

NATIONWIDE AND Q-SCHOOL: For those heading to Q-School next week: Consider what the future might hold.

Eight players who were in Q-School a year ago finished among the top 125 to keep their PGA Tour card, including PGA champion Y.E. Yang and Jason Dufner, the only two from that group who reached the Tour Championship. The average position on the money list for those eight players was 82.375, with Yang skewing the statistics at No. 10 on the strength of two victories.

Ten of the 25 players from the Nationwide Tour kept their card, with only of them -- Marc Leishman -- advancing to the Tour Championship based on two good weeks outside Boston and Chicago. The average position on the money list for Nationwide grads was 86.8.

DIVOTS: Americans won only five of the 27 events on the LPGA Tour schedule this year. ... The U.S. Open has been a sellout the last 23 years, although this year remains a challenge. The USGA is offering a promotion in which anyone who buys tickets before Dec. 14 will receive a gift set -- a ball marker and divot tool -- to wrap in time for the holidays. Tickets would not be mailed until May. ... Rory McIlroy moved to No. 10 in the world with this third-place finish in Dubai. He joins Sergio Garcia as the only 20-year-old players to reach the top 10 in the world. Tiger Woods did not get there until he was 21, and then he never left. ... The PGA Tour has signed an eight-year deal with Sky Sports to broadcast its tournaments live in the United Kingdom. The tour had left Sky for Irish-based Setanta until that network filed for bankruptcy protection in June.

STAT OF THE WEEK: Europe has six players among the top 10 for the first time since the world ranking began in 1986.

FINAL WORD: "What's he got going for him? Twenty years old. Millionaire already. Hits it miles. Nice-looking girlfriend. Drives a Lamborghini. Yeah, it's hard, isn't it?" -- Lee Westwood on Rory McIlroy.

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