Creating Competition

Padraig Harrington gets it. In this Telegraph article, he says it's time to drop the Euro labels and form a world golf tour. He'd like to merge all of the major tours that are not the US PGA Tour into a single tour that would be a competitor against the Big Show. It'd be about time.

The regional/continental tours are growing in their depth. There are more talented professionals playing abroad than there ever have been. The purses are increasing. More Americans are venturing overseas for Euro Tour and Asian Tour events - mainly because of appearance fees, but still. The global game deserves a tour that is actually global. The PGA Tour has single-handedly turned the WGC into the USGC. The PGA Tour will simply not move beyond the borders of the US except for the Open Championship, Riviera Mexico, and the new Puerto Rico event in 2009. So, if this is going to happen - a global tour - then it is on the European Tour to spearhead it. In the end, if they pull it off and succeed, this World Tour could become a lot more popular and put pressure on the PGA Tour to do better.