He is Europe's answer to Tiger Woods; but if Lee Westwood isn't yet in the same money league as his American contemporary, the 24-year-old Englishman's graph is very much in the ascendant. Westwood's win in the Australian Open brought his earnings for the past five weeks alone to over £500,000 and moved him to 23rd in the latest world rankings, an improvement of 41 places since last January.

Westwood is very much a man on the move, and in two short years has moved close to superstar status. His prize-money takings for 1997 amounted to £930,993 - yet, his income is dwarfed when compared with that of Woods, who has made the top 10 in Forbes for the first time.

Woods is ranked as the sixth biggest money earner in the United States with $26.1 million (basketball star Michael Jordan tops the list with $78.3 million). Intriguingly, however, the vast majority of Woods's earnings come from endorsements and bonuses, estimated at $24 million.

Westwood's latest success in Australia (following wins in the Volvo Masters in Spain and the Taiheiyo Masters in Japan) came at the expense of world number one Greg Norman, who again lost a play-off. Indeed, the Shark's play-off record - five wins, 12 losses - is very poor and his defeat to Westwood, at the fourth tie hole, provoked severe criticism in the Australian media yesterday.

Norman, however, attempted to push it to the back of his mind. "It's history, when I walked off the 18th green and had a beer it was done with," he remarked. Yesterday he undertook two corporate assignments, one at the appropriately named Pines in Sanctuary Cove and the other at a course on the Sunshine Coast.

Norman returns to a familiar hunting ground, at Royal Queensland, for the Players' Championship this week.

Meanwhile, Seve Ballesteros - who resigned as captain after leading Europe to victory at Valderrama in September, because he wants to be a player at Brookline in Boston in 1999 - yesterday insisted the European qualifying criteria for the next Ryder Cup match should be changed.

"There should be at least three wild-card selections," said the Spaniard. "I think qualification should only be in the current year, not starting the previous September, and the top 15 in any tournament should be awarded points. It should not be done on money."

Ballesteros had only two wild cards this year. He wanted four, but his request was rejected by Europe's Ryder Cup committee, and but for Miguel Angel Martin's injury he would have been forced to omit either Nick Faldo, Jose Maria Olazabal or Jesper Parnevik.

Having the qualifying race over eight months rather than 12 would reduce the chances of an out-ofform player making the side, while rewarding only top-15 finishes tackles the problem of someone squeezing into the team through playing every single tournament.

The Americans have only two wild cards but issue points for top10 finishes only and run their qualifying period over two seasons, with double points in the second year and in the Majors.

One possible change the Ryder Cup committee are thought to be considering is to a system where some players in the team qualify via the world rankings.

Ballesteros, whose successor is unlikely to be named until next summer, gives his thoughts in the winter issue of Golf International magazine, which goes on sale this week.

In the same article, at the end of a season which saw him slide to a worst ever 136th in the Order of Merit and outside the world's top 200, 40-year-old Ballesteros stated he still considers himself capable of producing "the best golf of anyone in the world".

"Not consistently for a whole year, but say for one week every month. We shall see," he said.