Tiger will need to earn his keep
Roar Rookie
By AussieGolfer, 20 Mar 2009 Michael Green is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- Australian Masters, Golf, Tiger Woods
The roots of Australian golf have been shaken. Old timers are pulling up their knee length socks and sifting through their old Dunlop 65s. Young punks have swapped the surfboard for a set of sticks. And even your average sports fan is probably aware of the situation.
In fact, Australian Brian Eno fans have even heard the news. Tiger Woods is coming to Australia.
Woods hasn’t been here for ten years and he’s coming again to play in the Australian Masters, at a price.
A $3 million price to be exact.
Debate rages over this decision by the Victorian government and I can’t see this dying down for some time.
Tiger Woods will be quizzed on this relentlessly when he arrives. The Australian media and public aren’t nearly as pandering when it comes to this sort of rapaciousness as in other parts of the globe.
He’s successful, too, of course, so beware.
I just have a few things to say on all this.
The Money
I’d love to see Tiger play and will do what I can in order to see him in Melbourne but the appearance fee is exorbitant.
But from a golf point of view, think about this. What would happen if we took the $3 million from Tiger paws and put it into the winning purse raising it from $275,000 to $3.275 million.
Maybe add it to the total prize money. Who this would attract?
More Top 10 players? Could we get 5 or 6 Porsches rather than one Rolls Royce? We’ll have a few Australian made Porsches playing here already.
State Vs State
This whole State versus State mentality in Australian golf has to stop right now. Leave it to the other sports.
The NSW Premier Nathan Rees’s comments on the issue and his preference to Brian Eno is stupid. I don’t care if he does prefer Eno.
The Joshua Tree was brilliant but turning this into a public slanging match doesn’t help one bit. Victorian Premier John Brumby’s choice of words aren’t much better.
Why is this even a State thing anyway?
I’m completely confused and infuriated that the three States that hold Australia’s major golf tournaments in NSW, Victoria and Queensland can’t work together to get big names for all tournaments. Golf Australia has a lot to answer for here, but I assume it’s all a money thing.
The States have the money and, therefore, they do the talking.
Tiger in Melbourne, great. Tiger in Australia, even better.
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The Crowd Says (6) | Page 1 of Comments
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Rabbitz said | March 20th 2009 @ 6:28am | Report comment
AussieGolfer,
You beat me to it. I agree completely and would add a couple of thing $4.5million (USD$3million) works out at somewhere between $10,000 and $12,500 per minute on the greens.
Given the current furore in political circles about “outrageous executive pay” I can’t believe that Brumby is touting this as a plus as this is an outrageous amount of money for one person to hit a little white ball.
Exactly where does the Victorian Premier think the $19million he claims Woods will “bring into the Victorian economy” will come from? Things are tough out there you know!
And finally regarding your comment regarding NSW Premier Nathan Rees, you have to remember he is a moron and is just a sock puppet for others in the Labor movement, so that sort of comment is actually expected.
Rabz
Benjamin Conkey said | March 20th 2009 @ 9:54am | Report comment
Imagine if Tiger misses the cut? That’s all I thought about when I heard the news. It’s great to have him, but I agree with Peter Thompson, who said what about the Australian Open? Our national open is on the week after, and will struggle to gain any sort of interest from the media and the public because of the Woods circus the week before.
Ian Jessup said | March 20th 2009 @ 10:42am | Report comment
AussieGolfer, if you want to know what Brian Eno can do … listen through headphones to Talking Heads – Fear of Music and then Remain in Light. Then the first side of My Life and the Bush of Ghosts. Genius.
The Euro PGA Tour comes to OZ for co-sanctioned events.
If the US PGA had any real devotion to growing the game and making their stars less insular they’d co-sanction a 3-week stint down under in Jan. One week in Syd, one in Melb and one in NZ.
Charter a 747 with their families and all. They’re all worth millions but won’t go west of Hawaii.
Brett McKay said | March 20th 2009 @ 11:40am | Report comment
Conks, if Tiger misses the cut, someone will give him a camera to throw at a tree…
I understand PeterThompson’s well-founded concerns, but if people have trouble justifying US$3M for four days (I’m assuming he won’t miss the cut!), then US$6M for the extra week in Sydney will be harder to swallow still.
Realistically, the $3M is going to ensure Aus golf gets way more coverage than it otherwise would have, and probably even for a considerably period of time than just the four days of the Masters. People probably won’t even notice it’s not at Huntingdale…
sportsfanslife.com said | March 20th 2009 @ 11:49am | Report comment
Various figures have been bandied about, but the impact on the economy with increased gate, sponsorship, media etc will more than account for the appearance fee. Did Greg Norman, an Australian, not get paid to play in some Aussie tournaments back in the day? Sure it probably pales in comparison to Tiger’s $$$, but again…it’s Tiger. If he plays his best golf, it’s worth every cent…..
Harry said | March 20th 2009 @ 6:12pm | Report comment
Its cheaper to watch Tiger Woods on TV playing in America. Don’t waste the money on bringing him here. Why pander to the egotist.