Already this year six golfers have been handed cheques for over one million dollars on the PGA Tour in America - and at this week's Accenture Match Play Championship the stakes are raised even higher with a first prize of 1.4million US Dollars on offer.
Nice work if you can get it, but for most of the past year South African Tim Clark has not been able to.
At Riviera last week former Scottish Open winner Clark made his first appearance since pulling out of his Players Championship title defence at Sawgrass last May.
To say his return to action went well would be far from the truth - he came home in 46 for a second round 82 and missed the cut in last place - but at least he completed the two rounds.
"I didn't know what exactly to expect. The fact that I could get through 18 holes without having any pain is quite nice," said the 36-year-old, who had surgery in August to repair the tendon he tore in his right elbow in Hawaii at the start of last year.
"I wasn't proud of my score and it got a bit frustrating at times, but I had to realise it's been eight months since I've played.
"I knew I would likely get beat up a little bit. It's tough. I just couldn't get it in the hole and there were other things - the touch, the feel shots from 70 to 80 yards - but in terms of driving the ball and full iron shots it was as good as it was before."
Because of his long lay-off Clark has dropped to 137th in the world and, three years after knocking Tiger Woods out of the event, is therefore not involved in this week's 64-man tournament in Arizona.
Steve Stricker, on the other hand, is the fifth seed for it and, on paper at least, America's best hope for a title won the past two seasons by Ian Poulter and Luke Donald and in 2009 by Australian Geoff Ogilvy.
But Stricker has his own injury concerns, not having played since the second week of January - and a week after winning the year-opening event in Hawaii.
He is going to try to make it through the season without undergoing surgery for a herniated disc in his neck and even when doctors advised him to take a break of up to 10 weeks the 45-year-old said: "I told them I can't do that."
Stricker had a cortisone injection just before Christmas for a problem that first bothered him over a year ago.
"After Hawaii I was kind of leaning toward surgery again, but the doctors said 'Let's just hold off - we're seeing little signs of improvement'.
"I've been going to physical therapy three times a week and doing a lot of exercising at home. I've hit balls for the last couple weeks and I'm just trying to get it stronger."
The same applies to Clark's countryman Richard Sterne, who from 29th in the world under four years ago has crashed all the way to 669th while battling an athritic back.
Winner of the Wales Open in 2007 - one of five European Tour victories - the 30-year-old from Pretoria managed only four events on the circuit in 2010 and just six last season.
So far this year, though, Sterne has already played in four and finishes of sixth in the Africa Open, 37th in Dubai and 23rd last week in India are encouraging signs.
Ireland's Paul McGinley will take heart too from coming 14th at the Avantha Masters on Sunday.
The Ryder Cup star, now 45, withdrew from two of his final three events last season because of first a wrist injury and then ongoing knee trouble - he has had six operations during a golf career that began after he broke a kneecap playing Gaelic football.
He is taking things gently on his return. India was only his second tournament of 2012 and he said: "I haven't been able to play a full schedule this year so far because of the rehabilitation, but hopefully as the season goes on I'll be able to play more and more."
The same event saw John Daly pull out after one round after damaging his right elbow against a tree root, the same thing Rory McIlroy did in last August's USPGA Championship.
Daly was relieved that X-rays showed no broken bones and hopes to play next in Puerto Rico on March 8-11.
Dangerous sport golf - American Matt Kuchar was stung on his forearm by a bee during the Northern Trust Open.
"It felt like my elbow was a bit on fire, but I kept going," he said. "The doctors said 'if you have trouble breathing, stop and we'll try to help you from there', but thankfully everything continued to go pretty normally."
