A Case for the Global Tour

The Australian* swing of professional golf that is globally recognized takes over in November and carries through late February. Two events in Australia and New Zealand are co-sanctioned by the Australasian PGA Tour and the European PGA Tour. Two other events are co-sanctioned with the Nationwide Tour here in the States. Stars from the co-sanctioning tours enter these events and deepen the quality of the fields because the money applies to their respective money lists. This is especially true for the Nationwide Tour, where guys who play well in the co-sanctioned events get a huge head start on the rest of the players. (2007 example is Jacob's Creek Open winner Scott Sterling.)

It's two most recognizable events, though, are not co-sanctioned: the Australian PGA Championship and the Australian Open. With combined purses of $3.0 million AUS, these events are not bursting with huge prize money. Thus, in this day of WGC events of $8 million USD, FedEx Cup events of $7 million USD, and guaranteed payouts in both, it is difficult to make the case to the best players in the world to make the trip to Australia to play for one-sixth the money.

Stuart Appleby, preparing to play in the Australian Masters, mentions as much in a story in the Adelaide Advertiser. When asked about the strength of fields in the Aussie/NZ events, he said:

You're not going to get the top Americans to Australia. It's not going to happen, the business has changed. You can see how it is when you get to Thanksgiving in America and you get to the end of the year, it's always going to hard now for Australia to attract players. Unless a tournament's got a half million dollar appearance fee they can blow around and spend on foreigners it's difficult to attract them.

Just as easily, you could replace Americans with foreigners and the quote would still be true. The argument for me, then, is that there simply is not enough money in these events to attract the best players. Unfortunately, the history of the Australian Open and the beauty of its course rota are not enough to get Tiger and Phil to come to the Land Down Under, unlike the appeal to Jack Nicklaus in his best playing days.

Still, how can I be so sure that money is the issue? It's simple really - Phil Mickelson has committed to playing in the Singapore Open and the HSBC Champions events in November. Ernie Els signed a lengthy deal to appear in the Singapore Open despite the bearing it may have on his ability to close out the Euro Tour Order of Merit each year. Why? HUGE appearance fees and solid purses. The combination is exactly what is needed to get the best to show up after the season is essentially over.

It is a sad commentary on the state of professional golf, but in order to get the best names, you have to flash currency. This is the perfect case for a global tour. With foreign multinationals interested in the game - HSBC is a great example - a truly global series of events could very well draw huge sponsorship money and big purses. As a result, the best players would be likely to join in the fray. The swing could essentially last from October through January - the downtime for the PGA Tour, the beginning of the Euro Tour year, and the primary time for the best events in Australiasia, Africa, and Asia Minor.

The PGA Tour could issue no objections because the season would be over for them - their foreign allowances would not come into play. The Euro Tour would love it since they're sponsoring some of these events anyway. And the Asian, Sunshine, and Australiasian Tours could thrive from the exposure by joining forces. It may not get an amazing field every week, but it may change the way many Americans think about their offseasons.

*I'd love to take a trip there, so if you have a hookup, let me know.