America's two richest athletes are golfers in 2007 - Tiger Woods is tops

Sports Illustrated has just released its Top 50 richest U.S. athletes for 2007.

Topping the list are two golfers: Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie.

Wait a second, just kidding. It’s Tiger and Phil Mickelson. Tiger dwarfs over everyone on the list with nearly $128 million earned last year, including over $100 million in endorsements alone. Analysts estimate Woods is about two years away from becoming the first ever billionaire athlete.

At second, Mickelson makes less than half of what Woods does at $62 million, $53 million of which comes from endorsements.

There are four NBA players in the top ten: Warren Buffett’s good buddy Lebron, followed by Kobe, Shaq and KG.

The next golfer (barely) on the list is Jim Furyk, earning about $15 million at 49th.

No international golfers made the International 20 list, led by David Beckham and littered with a bunch more soccer players. I would have thought Annika Sorenstam or Sergio Garcia would have been able to squeeze on it.