Aaron Baddeley hits out of a bunker Australian Masters at Huntingdale Golf Course - AAP Image /Andrew Brownbill
Australian Golf always complains that they can’t keep up with the tours in America and Europe and attract the big international names to play here. But they are getting the basics wrong.
For a start, most professional golfers finish their season around about now to get some time with family – and now, ironically, is when the Australian golf season commences.
That alone sounds silly enough.
Secondly, they promote the ‘Australian Masters’ as the Australian tour’s main event, when really it was, and always will be, the Australian Open – won seven times by Gary Player, six times by the great Jack Nicklaus, and other names like Peter Thomson and Arnold Palmer.
The Australian Open started in around 1904, it is over 100 years old and was once one of the big five tournaments in the world of golf. It was a sought after trophy, but it is no longer.
Why is that? Because they are getting the basics wrong.
If the Australian Open was held in our winter, or at least in the international season, and it was held at the same venue every year, in Melbourne, it would be half way to being a realistic option for international players.
But why would they travel half way around the world to play for less money? They won’t. But, if Australian golf took a long look at itself, maybe it would forget about promoting the ‘Australian Masters’, ‘The Australian PGA’, ‘The Vines’ etc and put all their energy and money into one tournament to set it up on the international stage.
What Australian Golf is trying to do is get back on the international stage, but they are trying to do it with several tournaments. They should take a step back and realise the only way to take a step forward onto the international stage is with one tournament. They need one tournament that draws in the players – and it needs to be in the golfing season, from January to November.
I don’t get the ‘Australian Masters’.
Is it Australia’s infatuation with all things American? What is with the Gold Jacket? Maybe it should be run on the Gold Coast and they should give the winner some white shoes as well?
If a golfer wants the win the ‘Masters’ they want to win the US Masters, which even non-golfers know is on in April at Augusta Georgia, USA and the winner gets a Green Jacket in the Butler Cabin, presented by the champion from the previous year.
Even the Australian PGA has more credit to it than the ‘Australian Masters’. The Australian PGA was established over 100 years ago, but the ‘Australian Masters’ gold jacket and white shoes thing, has been around since 1979. I don’t think Nicklaus ever played it, or Palmer (but i could be wrong).
Why isn’t Australian golf trying to keep the tradition alive and dump the ‘Australian Masters’ tagline of ‘The tradition continues’ and revert to the Australian Open as the trophy to win, with all the great names that have done so previously.
The ‘Australian Masters’ is some modern two-bit effort to copy a successful tournament in America.
But we are Australian.
To put the Australian Open golf tournament into perspective, the coveted ‘Major Title’ that is the ‘US Masters’ started in 1933 – 30 years after the Australian Open began.
Officials, take heed that the Australian Open is and should be promoted as not only Australia’s premier golf event but should sit proudly alongside other world majors.
Make it again one of the ‘must-have’ majors for golfers.
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