Golf Australasian Tour

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1873 United

1873 United

Team Captain
May 8, 2009
466
334
South East Melbourne
AFL Club
St Kilda
Other Teams
Leeds United
I have been following the local tour closely over the past couple of years, and started taking interest in some of our local players. As things stand the Australasian tour consists of roughly 12 tournaments, with only a handful offering decent prize-money for the players. This is proabably a big reason as to why we don't have more players of the calibre of Adam Scott and Jason Day.

I propose that the Australasian Tour needs to rethink the program in regards to the length of the tour, and offerings for up and coming pros.

1. Australian Open $1.25M
2. Australian PGA $1.25M
3. Perth International US$2M
4. Australian Masters $1M

These 4 events are the only opportunity a fair number of local professionals have at making a living, missed cuts result in almost certain ruin. It beggars belief that anyone would put themselves through this lifestyle, noting that these tournaments pay large appearance fees to top 20 players who come in a clean up the prize-money.

I propose that the Australian PGA look to grow these four events, in conjunction with the $1M NZ Open which returns in 2014, to a tour of 7-10 $1M events. This gives more players a pathway to the tour ranks, as there is little glamour earning 30K per annum.

Golf is a popular past time in Australia, and you'd find it harder to find a bloke without clubs than one with them. Australia has some of the great courses in the world, and they need to be regularly used in tournament golf.
 
Look at the tour 10-15 years ago and now, a lot of the tournaments have gone, ratings for golf has generally been bad and unless we get big stars down here (Tiger at the Aussie Masters, Presidents Cup) they aren't genreally well attended. What we have now is about as good as it is going to get. Look at how the Euro tour has dying.
 
Pretty good assessment of the state of the tour, the biggest issue is that since it became clear that the Australasian tour couldn't "Stand alone" they have tried to align themselves with every other tour under the sun and none of them have really worked.

One Asia is a joke, they have taken on the Asian Tour are failing dismally.. The best time for the Australian events in recent years were when we were aligned with the European Tour, we were able to get Justin Rose, Paul Casey (and plenty of others) down to our shores and it attracted all of the "middle tier" Aussie players back to play in AU because these events were the best events in the world on their given week (US Tour offseason)

It is a crying shame that guys like Greg Chalmers, Aaron Baddeley, Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, Marcus Fraser, John Senden are missing the big 3 in Australia playing for 5 x the prize money O/S.

What makes it worse is the coverage of these events in AU these days which is basically 2 groups per day watching every single shot. The only time we get to see anyone else on the coverage is a long putt holed out or a "stumped" iron shot usually at a par 3. The recipe for making golf tournaments a success in AU has been lost and the diluted talent makes our tour unattractive for sponsors, prize money and therefor top players.

Consider if Adam Scott hadn't won the Masters earlier in the year... It is his green jacket tour that sees him playing in the PGA. If it wasn't for he and Fowler this tournament would be a devoid of high ranked exciting players.
 

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Uspga tour have stuffed it for everyone,basically there tour now goes the whole year.theycould not give a toss about any tour apart from there own.I am sure that most aussie players would rather be home on holidays and playing a couple of oz events but unless they are a top 10 player like Scott they can't afford to let other guys get the jump on them.imagine having a world tour with 20 events world wide with top prize money plus the majors.having to pay a big fee just to have a player come here is a joke and is stuffing up golf worldwide.anyway enjoying the golf this week and good to see good crowds.
 
the 5th wiggle said:
Uspga tour have stuffed it for everyone,basically there tour now goes the whole year.theycould not give a toss about any tour apart from there own.I am sure that most aussie players would rather be home on holidays and playing a couple of oz events but unless they are a top 10 player like Scott they can't afford to let other guys get the jump on them.imagine having a world tour with 20 events world wide with top prize money plus the majors.having to pay a big fee just to have a player come here is a joke and is stuffing up golf worldwide.anyway enjoying the golf this week and good to see good crowds.
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This is not actually right, the US Tour has always had tournaments at this time of year. They have just altered the official "end of year" i.e. FEDEX Cup v's the traditional end of year which was after the Tour Championship which used to be in November. It is the European / Asia tours that have taken over this timeslot with their HSBC, BMW Championship and whatever this thing is in Turkey this week that have grown massively in terms of prize money and ability to draw the big names. It is also the European tour that used to have an offseason that no goes straight to 2014 season with events in Asia and South Africa. At one stage we were part of it, but we have now opted to align ourselves with the One Asia tour who could organise a proverbial root in a brothel with a fist full of $50's.
 
Brown n Gold said:
This is not actually right, the US Tour has always had tournaments at this time of year. They have just altered the official "end of year" i.e. FEDEX Cup v's the traditional end of year which was after the Tour Championship which used to be in November. It is the European / Asia tours that have taken over this timeslot with their HSBC, BMW Championship and whatever this thing is in Turkey this week that have grown massively in terms of prize money and ability to draw the big names. It is also the European tour that used to have an offseason that no goes straight to 2014 season with events in Asia and South Africa. At one stage we were part of it, but we have now opted to align ourselves with the One Asia tour who could organise a proverbial root in a brothel with a fist full of $50's.
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The last event that counts for money list used to be late oct / first week of nov,mostly what clashed was tour qualifying school which is usually mid nov.one event that has always hurt oz golf is the needbank challenge in sun city sth Africa.last place in that 15 or 20 man field gets as much as a winner in our events.
 
Anyone see the bloke at the World Cup at royal melb today,got a hole in one then next hole got an 11.i don't think that would ever of happened at the elite level.
 

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Scott chokes again.

Misses birdie putts down the stretch, then bogeys the 72nd, Rory birdies. Wins by 1.

With 3 holes to go, Rory was $3 with TAB. Was $5 after the 17th.
 
Incredible finish. Gutting for Scott not to claim the triple crown. But happy for Rory to break his season duck. Great player and a good guy.
 
red+black said:
Scott chokes again.

Misses birdie putts down the stretch, then bogeys the 72nd, Rory birdies. Wins by 1.

With 3 holes to go, Rory was $3 with TAB. Was $5 after the 17th.
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Too say Scott choked is the most absurd thing i have heard.

have you ever played Royal Sydney? Greens are insanely hard and if you miss slighlty putts are impossible.

This Australian habit of bashing our stars is embarrassing

Rory is ranked 6 in the world for god sake, its not like he lost to a rookie
 
On the last hole he choked. How anyone can debate that is baffling. It's not bashing, it happens to the best and most experienced players. In fact Scott is probably the most loved sportsman in Australia right now. The ranking of the eventual winner is completely irrelevant to this discussion.
 
Not going to debate it, but consider this, his iron into the green flew about 5 ft too long on the breeze, from there it finished on a bare ass lie to a bloody hard pin placement (as it should be for the 72nd hole)
his chip was caught a fraction thin, runs to 50ft and his putt misses by 4 or so inches.
In case you haven't played the game - this result was a common occurrence on this course based on the conditions presented.
if that is choking then 90% of the field choked on Sunday.....
however I'd simply call it championship golf at its best
 
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