16 AUGUST 2019 |golfaustralia
HUGGAN’S
ALLEY BY JOHN HUGGAN | GOLF AUSTRALIA COLUMNIST AT LARGEPHOTO:GETTY IMAGESSENSIBLE OR SENSELESS SCHEDULING?
AT FIRST glance, it all made perfect sense.
One big event every month from March
through July. Players. Masters. US PGA. US
Open. Open Championship.
But now that we are nearly done with the fi rst
go round of all that, I’m not so sure this new
schedule is really the best thing for professional
golf as a whole. It certainly works for the
fi nancial juggernaut that is America’s PGA Tour,
but for everyone or anyone else? As my old
Scottish granny used to say, “ah huv ma doots”.
Take the European Tour. While it has long
been the case that the game’s second-circuit
has only occasionally been the place to be
for the very best practitioners, that fact of life
has been cruelly exacerbated in 2019. After
the so-called “Middle East Swing” in January/
February – a time when the dark practice that
is appearance money is at its height – until the
gap between the US Open and The Open, the
European Tour has basically been dormant.
Underlining that fact is the list of winners
in regular European Tour events after Dustin
Johnson claimed the Saudi International title
in early February and before the US PGA at
Bethpage in May. David Law. Ryan Fox. Kurt
Kitayama. Justin Harding. Guido Migliozzi.
Scott Hend. Stephen Gallacher. Jorge Campillo.
Mikko Korhonen. Marcus Kinhult. All good
players no doubt, but not exactly crowd-pullers.
Or, more importantly, names likely to attract
big-money sponsors.
In contrast, here are just some of the
players – all Tour members – who made not one
appearance on their home circuit other thanThe Masters or a World Golf Championship over
that same period. Justin Rose. Sergio Garcia.
Paul Casey. Rory McIlroy. Ian Poulter. Francesco
Molinari. Jon Rahm. Henrik Stenson. Danny
Willett. One can only imagine what the sponsors
of events like the China Open, Qatar Masters,
Indian Open, Maybank Championship and British
Masters were thinking when they looked at the
almost star-less fi elds in their events.
Still, the news may not be all bad for the
European Tour. Things might look up more
than a little after the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup
nonsense comes to its usually perplexing halt
in mid-August. The (perhaps forlorn) hope is
no doubt that some or even many of the
higher-profi le American names will fi nd the time
to cross the Atlantic and tee-up in the BMW
PGA Championship at Wentworth or the Dunhill
Links Championship the following week. Some
might even play often enough to be eligible
for the European Tour’s “Race to Dubai” and
season-ending extravaganza, the DP World
Tour Championship.
Then again, re-read my granny’s pearl of
cynicism. Without signifi cant under-the-table
fi nancial inducements, all of the above may
turn out to be naive in the extreme. Already
one can imagine the headline: “Uncle Sam’s
Nephew, (fi ll in the blank), needs a break
from the game and will be staying at home in
September/October/November”.
So who, on the other side of this particular
coin, is coming out ahead in all of this? You
guessed it, the PGA Tour. With little or no
incentive to head “home” between March andJuly, the leading US-based European players
are focusing even more of their attention on
America. That’s a huge plus for Commissioner
Jay Monahan and his ever-growing band of
highly-paid vice-presidents.
Nothing is ever perfect though. The fragility
of his body has seen Tiger Woods – by a
distance still the biggest draw in the game –
play even more sparingly than normal in the
fi rst half of 2019. By way of example, the now
15-time major champion did not compete for a
month after winning the Masters, made only
appearance between the US PGA and the US
Open and was again absent without leave until
the Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
It is also hard to identify any tangible benefi t
for Australia in the wake of this new scheduling.
While things aren’t any worse for an Australian
Open played late in the year, it remains true
that a date in February would make more
sense. As part of, say, a three-week swing
through the country in February right after the
aforementioned Middle East events – as part of
the European Tour – would make what should
be one of golf’s premier events a lot more
accessible for top players and, in turn, sponsors
with deep pockets
The bottom line? In the world of golf as
it exists right now, the PGA Tour is the
dominant force. Not much happens that does
not benefi t the Florida-based behemoth. And
the timetable we have now is but one example
of that immutable law. Money talks and golf
listens. Mygranny would have no doubt
about that.