Australian Open

The Australian Open was held last weekend. It was won by Peter Lonard. Only about half a dozen Americans attended. Bob Estes finished best at equal fifteenth. None of the big names from the US Tour attended - apart of course from several Australians.

It was the Centenary Open so was a significant event for Australian golf. Arnold Palmer came out and played an exhibition game with Peter Thompson and Bruce Devlin. Palmer in a press interview said that golf had been very good to him and he felt he should put something back into promoting the game.

I recall Nicklaus and Player making similar statements a few years back when they regularly played in (and won!) the Australian Open. They drew huge crowds and were great publicity for golf in this country. I believe that Nicklaus, Palmer and Player each at various times expressed the view that the Australian Open should be the fifth major.

Times have changed. I admit that Thanksgiving was perhaps not the best day to start a tournament and a couple Australians - Norman and Scott chose not to attend. None the less, it seems to me that over the past few years the mighty dollar, not the game of golf, is uppermost in most players minds.

While the eyes of the world are on the US Tour and all the world's best players eventually finish up there, if the game is to flourish throughout the world then these top players should be seen by the world. It may not be so lucrative but the best players do make a hell of a lot of money and could afford the occasional lesser purse to promote the game.

What do you guys think?

Very True, it seems the young guns of todays game don't feel that they need to put anything back into the game - that they deserve to have the luxuries and all the benefits that come with playing golf for a living. They seem to forget that they would not be earning the $$$ if the likes of Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, Faldo, Norman etc had not been such great ambassadors for the game and promoted it they way they did. Maybe they all need a good talking to. However on the subject of the strongest tour I tend to feel that the strongest Tour is the European one, seeing as we did win the ryder cup, which is effectively the best from the US Tour against the best from the European Tour. This is something that allways makes me laugh when they say they have the strongest tour. Did they not watch the TV

Gallaway,

Regarding the Ryder Cup, I agree that the Europeans play better as a team and actually care about the team performance and not their individual egos. That being said, I don't think you can say that the players on the European Tour are better than those the PGA. If you disagree, look through the list of Major winners over the past 10 years to see my point. Looking at the world rankings, it's the rest of the world (Non USA/Europe) who seem to be at the top of the heap right now.

My thoughts on the subjects:

Golf at its purist is an individual sport, relying on nothing but you and your equipment and maybe help from your caddy. When it becomes a team event, it is easier for those that do not do as well individually to better embrace a team dynamic not letting their ego’s get in their way as much. If they awarded prize money to the player with the lowest score for each day...you can bet that things would change (adding individual incentives). But this is the Ryder Cup, and is perfectly wonderful to play the way it is designed, as a team.

As for the current players not traveling as much to help promote this sport...you have to agree that Tiger has done just about as much to promote this sport then any human on the planet...Nicholas, Palmer and Player combined. Just the simple idea that a young African/Asian American could dominate the world of this exclusive Anglo sport was more then the world could have imagined. It opened everyone's eyes to say anyone can do this. Since his reign, there really hasn't been any need to have another ambassador. Also allowing anyone in any country (except maybe Cuba and North Korea), to instantly see (TV/Internet) how their favorite player is doing that day shattered the need for travel as a way to experience this game at it's top level...so comparing what today’s players choose to do to what Nicholas, Palmer and Player did is contempt. Am I happy about it? Not really, but I am realistic about it.