Scheduling woes damage Australian tour
Print Edition
As the heavyweight US PGA Tour revamps its schedule and continues to expand internationally, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the world’s other tours to survive, let alone thrive.
Nowhere are the problems more acute than in Australia, a proud golfing nation that has produced some of the game’s greatest players, including this year’s Masters champion Adam Scott and former world number one Greg Norman.
The PGA Tour of Australasia has shrunk considerably since the halcyon days of a couple of decades ago when Japanese sponsorship money and the regular presence of home-grown superstar Norman combined to create a perfect storm that yielded a dozen or more world-class tournaments.
This year, the tour has dwindled to just four tournaments offering prize money of at least US$1 million. That might be fine if the country’s top players competed in all four, but this will not be the case.
Among the notable absentees will be Australian veteran Stuart Appleby, a nine-time winner on the PGA Tour who intends to skip his home circuit for the first time.
“I haven’t got any plans to play in Australia this year,” Appleby, 42, said. “It will be the first time I’ve aborted the whole schedule.
“The new schedule has made it really difficult and unfortunately there is very little making Australia look like a proposition now (for us) to come back and play.
“Many of us have done it for 15 years or so but you may find that this is now a trend and that you’ll see very few guys (going back to Australia to play).”
The PGA Tour of Australasia faces several problems. The biggest is that three of its four major tournaments will clash with the start of the 2013-14 PGA Tour season.
For the first time, the US circuit will officially launch its season in October, rather than in January, and six events will be played in late 2013.
It is no coincidence the Australian Open, the only event on the PGA Tour of Australasia that does not clash with the 2013-14 PGA Tour, will have the strongest field.
Masters champion Scott will help soften the blow this year by playing in three events — the Australian PGA Championship, the Australian Masters and the Australian Open.
Appleby says it’s basically not worth it for the players.
“I love playing in Australia and truly wish I could but the Australian tour is a small tour and insignificant on the world stage compared to the other tours.”
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