posted Jun 24, 2008

There's a lot of rose-tinted views here.
England hasn't produced a Major winner for some time and there is no realistic prospect for the future, even with out Woods.
Golf just mirrors our country's consistent abysmal record in big televised sports, with only a couple of minor blips in recent years,
If we had top sports people, we would have more credibility to host top events.

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posted Jun 24, 2008

Unfortunitely if players aren't paid £ XXXX, they tend not to attend an event. The same goes for appearance fees. How much would the event need to fork out just for Woods to play?

Additionally it is an event where players earn decent ranking points, or do their american counterparts push them out of world rankings by playing in some random Texas open?

If this were the 'ATP Masters' of golf and had a significant impact on rankings (say to make the Ryder cup teams), it would be a much more signficant success. Imagine 16 of the worlds top golfers compete against each other... sadly capitalism is preventing the growth of the sport. Each and every major sponsor wants their own tournament to draw in a greater number of viewers, thus offering greater prizes...

Thus I ask. How does Tiger Woods and a host of other US golfers who mainly play in the US really promote the game to the rest of the world?

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posted Jun 24, 2008

"How much would the event need to fork out just for Woods to play?" (SuperZuluZulu)

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to matter how much is forked out. When sponsored by HSBC, it was comfortably the richest prize in golf - £1 million is about $2 million, at current exchange rates. And still, Tiger wouldn't come.

Weneye is right - it was effectively finished some time ago and, if there was any doubt, the FedEx Playoffs finally did for it.

I don't agree that Wentworth is the 'only' place for it. Surrey in October is rarely sunny and the tall trees make the course gloomy, both in personal presence and on TV. Spain is a better place for it, in my view. I also think that Wentworth isn't as good a course as some claim - Sunningdale is better and hosted an excellent Ladies British Open a few years ago. Lovely greens at the big W, no doubt, but is it really worthy of two big events a year (BMW PGA being the other one)?

The bigger concern is how few Tour events the UK now has. It used to be there were loads, all over the country - now there are less than a handful. And I don't believe it's just about courses being too short for the modern game and the infrastructure. The Bournemouth courses are still up to it; so are courses in the NW of England; and Machynys, of course, with a potentially card-wrecking 18th hole, especially if the wind's in the wrong direction...
Perhaps the problems is we the people don't attend in sufficient droves?

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posted Jun 24, 2008

Oh, and another thing SuperZuluZulu - the American players don't, in general, give a tuppeny damn about the rest of the world. They firmly believe the PGA Tour is the best - and it is, for the most part, at the moment. How it will be if Tiger doesn't fully recover, the sponsorship flood recedes and the Race to Dubai is the success we expect...
We shall see, eh?
Don't hold your breath for the Americans. Mickelson may come - he seems to like the welcome he gets and, if he needs one more European event to make the Race to Dubai, I think you can ink his name in.
But anyway, who wants to see Fatbelly Gutbucket, winner of the Greater Boohickie Open, roll his one-dimensional game round anyway?
I'd rather see the highly-ranked Europeans fighting it out with the Aussies, the South Africans, Cabrera, Romero, KJ Choi, etc. And under a sunlit sky - even if I can only see it on TV (what's new about that?)

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posted Jun 24, 2008

It is a shame that HSBC pulled out, i dont understand why? Matchplay at Wentworth was perfect.

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posted Jun 24, 2008

The "World Matchplay" has been a nonsense for years. Way back Mark McCormick had a big say in who played - usually members of his IMG group; then more recently they tried to get the world's best players - but as usual the Americans believed the "world" is a planet 3000 miles west of Europe, so didn't see the reason for turning up.

The real "World Matchplay" is the Accenture held each spring in the USA, where all the world's players do turn up - the UK version is / was just a farce; and the revamped Spanish one will probably be also - giving more money to those who don't need it. Give me a regular EPGA tour event any day.

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posted Jun 24, 2008

The World Match Play passed its sell-by date years ago. In its original format, as the Piccadilly in the mid-1960s, it had novelty, real star players, excitement and became a much loved end to the golfing season. There were several reasons for this early success - firstly, there was very little live golf on TV at that time, and secondly the field of 8 contained Nicklaus, Palmer and Player - the Big Three of their day, plus any winners from major championships that the Big Three had not already hoovered up that year. The eight contestants were world class acts and it truly could be called the World Match Play. Not any longer. Gradually the novelty wore off. It always was a cash cow - for IMG players principally. The move to 12 players with 4 (unfairly) having a bye weakened the format, then 16 (which at least made it 'fair') proved an unwieldy problem, as there was no way the 'top' 16 players in the world were going to come, and risk having just one day's golf, whatever the pampering. But gradually the television demands took over. As the really big players declined to come, the field was padded out with various categories - the plucky local Brit, a largely unknown Japanese player to bring in TV audiences in the Far East, and one or two golden oldies as a kind of thanks for the memories slot. It became predictable, dull, and stuck in a groove. And the BBC coverage became so sycophantic towards their favoured players. One benefit of the event not taking place any longer at Wentworth is that we will be spared endless references (whenever the 15th or 16th hole is shown) to the fact that 'Ernie' has a house nearby. we really took that on board years ago and didn't need reminding every ten minutes or so. And then there was that disastrous year when Tim Henman was playing some over-running tennis match in some far from major event overseas, and it went to five sets and we hardly had any of the final at all, much to the obvious embarrassment of Steve Rider, then the anchor man, who kept given us hurried updates between end changes at the tennis. The writing was really on the wall after that disaster. Sad to say, but I don't think the event will be greatly missed, nor will its replacement ever recreate the excitement of the old 'Piccadilly'.

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posted Jun 25, 2008

"You just have to watch golf on TV to see how poorly supported these events are in Europe" I don´t agree at all!!! Some examples of golf events attendance in Continental Europe:
- More than 60.000 people in last week BMW International Open.
- Nearly 40.000 in this year Spanish Open (10.000 only on Thursday. The other days: 5.000 on Friday, 8.000 on Saturday and 12.000 on Sunday)... and with a week field! excepting MAJiménez, Monty, Hansen, Daly.
- More than 50.000 in last year Volvo Masters.

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posted Jun 27, 2008

Yacare - The Welsh Open was almost an embarrassment, with acres of grass where spectators should be. With any luck, though, 50,000 baying fans lining the closing four holes amphitheatre for the Ryder Cup will make Celtic Manor look a lot better.
The numbers you quote are kind of OK - but did you see that tournament in Arizona earlier this year, where 600,000 turned up (not all on the same day, luckily!)? We're not there yet on the European Tour - we need a charismatic young lion to raise the profile like Tiger. Can't see anyone at the moment.

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posted Aug 21, 2008

Why has everything it seems these days got to be about Dubai. Its annoying to see the tournaments going there just because this over hyped middle east resort is current flavour of the month with the celeb in crowd.
Race to Dubai, what kind of mickey mouse name is that. It demeans the greatest sport in the world.

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