The future of the tours

[OLIVER1]

I've been reading with interest a few articles in the British newspapers about the concern for the well-being of the European Tour. Many new events have sprung up in far-off destinations in recent years, but now the novelty has worn off and to ensure future funding sponsors are beginning to demand the guarantee of top players in their events who are, of course, migrating to the States to better their chances of winning majors. Add to this the current parlous state of several European economies and you can see the worries.

I wonder if anybody has any ideas about how the two major tours will look in twenty years or so. Will we have a world tour like tennis, or will the respective tours remain autonomous, albeit linked by majors and WGC's?

Seems a very interesting topic...

 

[mb6606]

There will be one world tour - the sponsors will demand it. Players will follow the money. The players agents and endorsement deals will ensure they play internationally. As the world shrinks The US will become less important as a weekly venue. There will be the 4 majors but each continent will have huge tournaments with greater prize money than the majors.

 

[mgranato]

This one would be difficult without expressing some strong political opinions about the path our republic is on... which is strongly discouraged.

As someone who's lived on both continents, what are your thoughts about how the two tours are viewed by one another?

 

[wulsy]

I see it continuing the way it is - 2 tours, a few "world events" and the 4 majors. The European Tour will be renamed because as Oli said many of the tournaments will not be in Europe, many will be in Asia. This tour will possibly become bigger than the US Tour, which will also expand into new territories.

 

[Kevin Shields]

I just hope the Tour encourages more turnover so the new crop can get cards. No more hanger ons.

 

[ekennedy]

I just hope the Tour encourages more turnover so the new crop can get cards. No more hanger ons.

Uh oh. Did someone say hanger on? Man, that guy can smell a sponsor exemption a mile away...and a buffet.

 

[wulsy]

Who dat?

 

[ekennedy]

Dat's your boy, Guy Boros.

 

[dschultz6072]

Lee thinks the same.

 

[OLIVER1]

This one would be difficult without expressing some strong political opinions about the path our republic is on... which is strongly discouraged.

As someone who's lived on both continents, what are your thoughts about how the two tours are viewed by one another?

To be honest, Mike, I can only really relate how I felt about the US Tour growing up in the UK, but couldn't give you anything of note in the last fifteen years or so that I've lived in the States. So here goes...

I remember watching the U.S players at the Masters, US Open and USPGA late at night on BBC (no cable or satellite then) was like watching a UFO - You'd be in awe at how much better they appeared, how much smarter they were, how availed of all the best equipment they were and how cool the golf courses looked, while all the time wondering why they didn't really want to interact with us and secretly glad they didn't so that we wouldn't be exposed as interlopers and get zapped.

I remember watching the American lads at the British Open, striding about the place like golfing colossuses's's' (colossi, perhaps?)
utterly aware of how very superior they were - not in an arrogant way but just in the manner of those who'd followed Hogan, Palmer, Trevino, Nicklaus, Watson, Miller and Weiskopf into the Home of Golf and cleaned up without too much ado.

Then came Seve, and hard on his heels Langer, Lyle, Faldo, Woosnam and Olazabal, and that little lot, coupled with Ryder Cup successes, shattered the myth. Beyond those times I think Wulsikins, Burner, Birly or ParHunter could give you a better call on how the US Tour is perceived back on the Isles.

As the European Tour stands now, it seems that it may have overreached itself, at least to my mind. I appreciate and, indeed, applaud the sentiment of expanding the game in China, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, but the hope is that the game becomes self-sustaining there, and thus attractive to the very best players; when it doesn't then sponsors become wary of future investment as evidenced in the current economic climate.

The European Tour straddles the two hemispheres so that as one season ends another begins, and when events on the Asian Tour are co-sanctioned with the Australasia Tour, which is linked to the South African Tour and gives credit to the European Tour it's bloody difficult to wrap your head around it all. When the Race to Dubai 2013 starts up half an hour after the 2012 edition ends because of the different seasons in the two hemispheres it creates a conceptual question: Just where is my reference point for this Tour?

When European players, desperate for ranking points to break into the top 75 have to travel halfway round the world to play when their season has just ended, it's enormously trying, both personally and professionally. And if a player has some great finishes on the European Tour but finds himself fifteenth on his own money list because Luke Donald's second place finish at a WGC event counts twice it's hard to fathom.

One has to assume that alarm bells are ringing when one sees a player like Robert Karlsson attending US tour school. He's a fabulous player and a staunch supporter of the European Tour, but if he can travel at most three hours from fabulous event to fabulous event, amass a good deal of ranking points without changing currencies, taking his passport, or logging more air miles than Neil Armstrong, not to mention being able to move his family to a nice place with good schools and actually get to see them once in a while, then he's going to do it. Add in to the mix that three of the majors are in the U.S and, phew, the European Tour becomes a tough sell.

Saying that, there are some wonderful things about European Tour: Who doesn't want to see a golf tournament played against the backdrop of the Singapore skyline? Who doesn't want to listen to all the wildlife chirping, hissing and growling as players thread their way through a course in Africa? Who doesn't want to see a young Malay or Thai golfer, with a swing that only a mother could love, trying against all the odds to batter his way onto the radar? And who doesn't want to see golfers teeing off above the clouds at Crans-Sur-Sierre? Unfortunately, as more and more top golfers are sucked into the US Tour to be the best they can the European Tour will be downgraded to second class citizen and some of those wonderful things will go the way of the dodo..

 

[Dariusz J.]

I will be like a broken record and say that, hopefully, a real interactive media will rule by then. Everyone will be able to watch what they want and whichever player they want and not just around-green play + recovery shots. Media will not be afraid to show incompetent pros any more. Golf will return to its main attributes -- accuracy and consistency. Courses will be much tougher to play from tee to green and people will learn to enjoy struggling of the pros because they will be able to feel the same at last.
Nowadays neither amateurs play on such tough greens as pros nor pros on such tough roughs as amateurs which makes golf similar to a PC game. No matter who -- best pro or worst amateur -- should feel the same about the game.

Cheers

 

[mgranato]

To be honest, Mike, I can only really relate how I felt about the US Tour growing up in the UK, but couldn't give you anything of note in the last fifteen years or so that I've lived in the States. So here goes...

I remember watching the U.S players at the Masters, US Open and USPGA late at night on BBC (no cable or satellite then) was like watching a UFO - You'd be in awe at how much better they appeared, how much smarter they were, how availed of all the best equipment they were and how cool the golf courses looked, while all the time wondering why they didn't really want to interact with us and secretly glad they didn't so that we wouldn't be exposed as interlopers and get zapped.

I remember watching the American lads at the British Open, striding about the place like golfing colossuses's's' (colossi, perhaps?)
utterly aware of how very superior they were - not in an arrogant way but just in the manner of those who'd followed Hogan, Palmer, Trevino, Nicklaus, Watson, Miller and Weiskopf into the Home of Golf and cleaned up without too much ado.

Then came Seve, and hard on his heels Langer, Lyle, Faldo, Woosnam and Olazabal, and that little lot, coupled with Ryder Cup successes, shattered the myth. Beyond those times I think Wulsikins, Burner, Birly or ParHunter could give you a better call on how the US Tour is perceived back on the Isles.

As the European Tour stands now, it seems that it may have overreached itself, at least to my mind. I appreciate and, indeed, applaud the sentiment of expanding the game in China, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, but the hope is that the game becomes self-sustaining there, and thus attractive to the very best players; when it doesn't then sponsors become wary of future investment as evidenced in the current economic climate.

The European Tour straddles the two hemispheres so that as one season ends another begins, and when events on the Asian Tour are co-sanctioned with the Australasia Tour, which is linked to the South African Tour and gives credit to the European Tour it's bloody difficult to wrap your head around it all. When the Race to Dubai 2013 starts up half an hour after the 2012 edition ends because of the different seasons in the two hemispheres it creates a conceptual question: Just where is my reference point for this Tour?

When European players, desperate for ranking points to break into the top 75 have to travel halfway round the world to play when their season has just ended, it's enormously trying, both personally and professionally. And if a player has some great finishes on the European Tour but finds himself fifteenth on his own money list because Luke Donald's second place finish at a WGC event counts twice it's hard to fathom.

One has to assume that alarm bells are ringing when one sees a player like Robert Karlsson attending US tour school. He's a fabulous player and a staunch supporter of the European Tour, but if he can travel at most three hours from fabulous event to fabulous event, amass a good deal of ranking points without changing currencies, taking his passport, or logging more air miles than Neil Armstrong, not to mention being able to move his family to a nice place with good schools and actually get to see them once in a while, then he's going to do it. Add in to the mix that three of the majors are in the U.S and, phew, the European Tour becomes a tough sell.

Saying that, there are some wonderful things about European Tour: Who doesn't want to see a golf tournament played against the backdrop of the Singapore skyline? Who doesn't want to listen to all the wildlife chirping, hissing and growling as players thread their way through a course in Africa? Who doesn't want to see a young Malay or Thai golfer, with a swing that only a mother could love, trying against all the odds to batter his way onto the radar? And who doesn't want to see golfers teeing off above the clouds at Crans-Sur-Sierre? Unfortunately, as more and more top golfers are sucked into the US Tour to be the best they can the European Tour will be downgraded to second class citizen and some of those wonderful things will go the way of the dodo..

Thanks for that well written reply. A lot of great points and many I've never considered from those perspectives.

Do you think the European Tour needs the events that are not in Europe? I wonder if the ET would not be stronger going forward if its current collection of talent, especially having the world's #1, were concentrated in a tighter geographical area.

 

[hp12c]

Majors and money from what I see from my couch Europe has 1 major and majors attract the top players and m-o-n-e-y! untill Europ/Asia/Australia get some majors created there the USA will still be the place to play proffesionally for majors and $$$$$$$!

 

[DCgolf]

Post war Europe experienced a phenomena that came to be known as the brain drain where the best minds and technology emigrated to the US because of $$$$. Golf is no different as hp12 says. But we have WGCs and and a few other events, so I'm fine with the status quo actually. Where I grew up I played the course nearest my house. After 3 PM for twilight rate BTW.

 

[mgranato]

The twilight rate... one of the best inventions in the game.

 

[OLIVER1]

Do you think the European Tour needs the events that are not in Europe? I wonder if the ET would not be stronger going forward if its current collection of talent, especially having the world's #1, were concentrated in a tighter geographical area.

I think that the European Tour made the right decision to expand globally, not wanting to put all their oeufs in one basket, as it were, it's just that they outran their coverage. Scaling everything back to a Continental and Isles only tour, even without the current financial woes, would be a reactionary move that, in my estimation, could only hurt as corporations with their majority interests in the Far East and other places view the move as a snub and divest themselves of Euro Tour partnerships. They're already looking to do so to follow the best players to the States and maximise their exposure here; moreover, in the eighties and early nineties the best players in the world were mainly European, who, to a large extent, played a full Continental schedule but still couldn't help the Tour to gain any worthwhile traction, so it's a path well trodden.

We have to recognize some rather sobering practicalities; ones that both DCGolf and hp12 touched upon. From both a micro and macro standpoint the United States has enormous golfing economies of scale: The US college system is outstanding in terms of providing a finishing school and launching pad for tour aspirants, and will likely continue to attract the very best youngsters from all over the world for the forseeable; secondly, the US tour is rightly considered the gold standard for tour players across the world - historically, financially, from a prestige standpoint and the fact that three of the majors and a bonanza of OWGR points are here, and it would be entirely remiss of Tim Finchem et al if they didn't strive mightily to cement that hegemony; they are tasked to play an already very strong hand and they are very adroit at doing so.

My final point might be one that many take issue with: The U.S has a population with a disposable income that outstrips that of most, if not all OECD countries that could rightly claim a national interest in golf. There's a reason why Las Vegas and Atlantic City couldn't exist in Europe, and compound that with the fact that petrol, for example, is a third of the price in the U.S and that clothing is half the price here (if I see another Brit shopping in the outlet stores here in the NorthEast claiming, with some justification, that they can do eighteen months worth of shopping in the States, incl. airfare and accomodation for a few days and still come out ahead, I'm gonna scream.) More disposable income + lower prices = more leezure spending = more interest in golf = more golf watching = more pull for sponsors = cash spigot turned on. Now, I've taken a few liberties there, and some of my leaps of logic might be a bit fraught, but I think I'm there or thereabouts.

In the final analysis, the European Tour will have to content itself with playing second fiddle for a while; precious little succour, I know, but the golfing family is worldwide and who gives a shit who runs it as long as we get to see the best guys at the best places while still enjoying the labours of the lesser lights, off the beaten track, until they can get to the big show.

 

[ryant91]

PGA Tour is expanding. Now runs Canadian Tour as well as a Latino America.

 

[DCgolf]

The twilight rate... one of the best inventions in the game.

Right up there with the lawn mower...Blackwood Golf course. 4 bucks for 18 before 3 PM, 2 bucks after. Weekends forget it.

 

[mjstrong]

One has to assume that alarm bells are ringing when one sees a player like Robert Karlsson attending US tour school. He's a fabulous player and a staunch supporter of the European Tour, but if he can travel at most three hours from fabulous event to fabulous event, amass a good deal of ranking points without changing currencies, taking his passport, or logging more air miles than Neil Armstrong, not to mention being able to move his family to a nice place with good schools and actually get to see them once in a while, then he's going to do it. Add in to the mix that three of the majors are in the U.S and, phew, the European Tour becomes a tough sell.

Saying that, there are some wonderful things about European Tour: Who doesn't want to see a golf tournament played against the backdrop of the Singapore skyline? Who doesn't want to listen to all the wildlife chirping, hissing and growling as players thread their way through a course in Africa? Who doesn't want to see a young Malay or Thai golfer, with a swing that only a mother could love, trying against all the odds to batter his way onto the radar? And who doesn't want to see golfers teeing off above the clouds at Crans-Sur-Sierre? Unfortunately, as more and more top golfers are sucked into the US Tour to be the best they can the European Tour will be downgraded to second class citizen and some of those wonderful things will go the way of the dodo..

These two paragraphs sum up my own opinion much more succinctly than I could. Very well written.