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We’ve had the Hawaii Swing and a nice little pro-am in California so far in 2012, but all these tournaments have lacked the star power that drives people to their television sets to watch golf in the middle of winter.

All that changes this weekend as there are two tournaments taking place on opposites sides of the globe that are sure to catch the attention of the hibernating golf fan, the HSBC Champions in Abu Dhabi and the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Both tournaments are boasting pretty strong fields with players that are capable of stealing away some viewers from the misery of watching the NFL Pro Bowl.

The question that arises from the split fields of the two tournaments stems from a purely financial point of view and involves Tiger Woods.

Imagine that.

During his press conference earlier in the week, Woods was asked a number of questions about his health, his swing and the state of his game, but an interesting line of questioning came up when the former world No. 1 was asked if appearance fees have an impact on the scheduling of high-profile players.

Woods was pretty forthcoming when asked if it affects how he schedules tournaments, saying, “You know, I’d have to say yes, it certainly does. That’s one of the reasons why a lot of the guys who play in Europe. I think the only tour that doesn’t pay [appearance fees] is the U.S. Tour.

“But, you know, a lot of the guys play all around the world and they do get appearance fees. Only place we don’t get it is the U.S.”

As I’ve said many times before, the upper echelon of professional golfers are independent contractors, setting their own schedule, rarely taking into consideration what their respective tours would like from them.

This week is the perfect example, especially in Woods’ case.

Growing up in southern California and playing on Torrey Pines all of his life, including some of his most iconic victories, you would think that Eldrick would like to take every opportunity to tee it up at Torrey.

However, as Tiger said in his presser, the PGA Tour will not pay their members or members of any other tour to simply show up, something PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem is adamant about.

“From the standpoint of professional athletic competition, it raises the specter in the fans’ mind that the player is only there because he was paid to be there and not there to really compete,” he said. “If the player doesn’t play well, in light of that perception, then there is a secondary perception that he didn’t even come to compete, he just showed up to get his appearance money. That is not a good thing for your image.

“This is something that’s been part of the PGA Tour since its inception in 1968. We think our image is the most important thing we have, and we’re not going to take the risk.”

First of all, the image of the PGA Tour is certainly not the most important thing they have, it’s the players, but the commish does make a good point.

People are cynical and if someone like a Tiger Woods shows up at an off-brand tournament and collects and appearance fee only to shit the bed, excuse the expression, people are going to go into full cynicism mode.

It will become a common thread around the golf world that Woods only showed up because he was paid to be there, not to try and win a tournament, regardless if that were true or not.

The European Tour combats that with paying enough high-profile players to make it worth their while to not only show up for the money, but to compete because of the world ranking points on the line.

This is all just a long way of saying that both systems work when implemented properly. As they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

As it stands now, if players are going to get paid good money to show up and play against good fields, they will continue to pass up the Torrey Pines’ of the world to play in Abu Dhabi for a nice pay day before the tournament even starts.