With the major stars of professional golf acting as individual contractors when setting their schedule, it has become commonplace for tournaments wishing to boast a stellar field or woo marquee names to shell out some cash in order to get the top players to their events.

Often, the misconception is that these tournaments willing to offer large appearance fees take place in exotic locations such as Singapore, China or Dubai where players would otherwise not play, however as the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson points out in his article Tuesday, the PGA Tour is guilty of similar offenses.

“America is doing what we’ve done for 20 years, and there’s nothing wrong with it,” said Chubby Chandler of British-based International Sports Management, whose list of clients includes Els, Westwood, Rory McIlroy and two of the last three major champions in Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.

“Tournaments have to get players to commit early,” Chandler said. “You can’t sell tournaments on the hope a bunch of guys might enter on Friday night. It’s just a way of getting players there. And they have to do something for it.”

Take, for example, the PGA Tour stop this week in New Orleans at the Zurich Classic. The Zurich boasts its strongest field in five years because of its subtle use of appearance fee money through sponsorship.

The global insurance provider uses players they sponsor, Justin Rose and Ben Crane, while also enlisting the help of other “ambassadors” Camilo Villegas, Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell and Rickie Fowler. These ambassadors go to dinners, shake hands and play in pro-ams while getting other top players to commit. The more quality players, the more world ranking points and money at stake.

The way Zurich and many other title tournament sponsors get top players to appear at their tournaments is much more understated than their compatriots overseas. Tiger Woods routinely receives $3 million for showing up. It’s no surprise he is going down under to play in the JB Were Masters when he’s getting that kind of cash. Of course, along with the fee comes other commitments, such as a dinner or pro-am.

The only difference is that on the PGA Tour it is simply seen as guys picking the events they want to play on Tour. The sponsorship dollars that double as appearance fees aren’t openly talked about because it gives off the vibe that tournaments are desperate for players and everyone should know that it’s a privilege to play in any PGA Tour event.

The PGA Tour had to tighten its regulations in 2004 when Ford, the title sponsor of Doral, paid up to $600,000 for four elite players to take part in a pro-am with Ford dealers. Adding to the embarrassment was Golf World magazine obtaining a letter from IMG that offered a menu of players — and how much they cost — in exchange for those players looking favorably upon playing the tournament.

There was some concern at PGA Tour headquarters a few years later when more tournaments began paying for certain players to show up at a cocktail party or dinner during the tournament.

One agent, speaking on condition of anonymity so players or tournaments couldn’t be implicated, said one of his clients recently was paid to appear at one tournament, provided he attend a dinner party the sponsor held at another PGA Tour event four months later.

By any definition, that’s appearance money.

The closeted nature of appearance money in the US is right up the PGA Tour’s alley. While the money is kept under the table, it appears as if the top players want to play these lesser events, if you will, simply because its a Tour event when in reality they are getting paid to show up.