Australia on the US PGA Tour schedule?
The Herald-Sun is reporting that the US PGA Tour is considering adding Australia to its schedule. If true, this would be the biggest ever shake up of Australian professional golf which has always lacked enough prize money to make the long flight worthwhile.
If the report by Mark Hayes is to be believed, the competing Aussie dollar and the willingness of the US PGA Tour to expand into the Asian market make an Australian tournament a viable option. In particular, the Australian Masters.
The US TV market is a huge consideration for the PGA Tour where much of its revenue is made in association with large sponsorships. Any Australian tournament would be telecast live well outside of prime time viewing in the US so it would seem the Asian golf market is the target audience if this is serious.
There has been much made of the appearance fee to lure Tiger Woods to Australia and the Victorian Government has done its best to justify the investment. They’ve continued to spruik the huge knock on effect to the local economy and Golf Australia have reported an increase in golf participation.
It may seem that the full effect on Australian golf and the local economy is yet to be fully realised.
Michael, if the WGC in China is any indication, the time zones may not be a problem. I live on the East Coast of the US, and Golf Channel broadcasts were shown three times — live at 11pm with roughly a 12-hour time difference (Thursday in China was Wednesday night here), repeated the next morning at 8am, and rebroadcast a second time at noon.
I see no reason the PGA Tour might not do something similar with an Australian tournament. And unless I’ve figured wrong, you’re about 16 hours ahead of us (noon Monday here is 4am Tuesday in Melbourne), which would actually put the Thursday afternoon of an Australian tournament in Wednesday night prime time here. That’s probably an ideal situation for Golf Channel.
An interesting development, Michael. And I love the use of “spruik.”
Ha. Well thankyou. It is a word that should be used more. 🙂
The US PGA is still struggling to find new sponsors, as old contracts expire. Many of the big American Corporates are still in “el cheapo” mode with their marketing, on the tail end of the GFC.
As Finchem gets to the end of his run, he may also be feeling a touch guilty re Greg Norman and the WORLD Golf Championships.
The Australian Open would be a good Fall Series event, and they could convince enough of the Americans to hang around for the Aussie PGA & Masters.
it would have to be the Australian Open and it would have to be played at the tried & true courses – not places like that Thompson abomination at Moonah.