Tiger Woods ‘not worth’ $3 million to Qatar event

Tiger Woods’ going rate of $3 million is too pricey -- even for the organizers of a golf tournament in the “richest nation on earth.”

Woods’ purported charge just to show up at a non-PGA Tour golf tournament was simply too much for the president of the Qatar Golf Association to cough up for this month’s Qatar Masters event, according to the organization’s president.

“Tiger Woods demands $3 million just for an appearance, if he were to compete in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters -- which is not worth paying for a tournament of $2.5 million prize money,” Hassan al Nuaimi told the Doha News on Wednesday.

Some observers speculated that the news out of Qatar played a role in Woods’ decision to make his first start in two years at the Farmers Insurance Open, which conflicts with the Middle East contest. But Tiger’s agent rebutted such skepticism.

Woods “was never contemplating Qatar,” Mark Steinberg said in an e-mail to Bloomberg.

Woods unveiled his partial schedule for 2013 on the same day that the organizers of the European Tour event in Qatar said the world’s third-ranked golfer was too expensive for them. With Woods kicking off his season next week at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, it would have been a far easier turn-around for him to get to Qatar than it will be to make it to San Diego.

The Farmers runs from Jan. 24-27 at Torrey Pines, where Woods has won six regular-season events.