If the rankings accurately reflect the state of golf, Europe has six of the world’s top eight golfers. Australia, meanwhile, has nobody ranked in the top 25. Is this merely a cyclical, random occurrence, or is Australian professional golf really in permanent decline?
In a game that is becoming increasingly global, it would be arrogant to assume that Australian golf is just enduring a quiet patch before another period of ascendancy.
With participation numbers reportedly plummeting and golf apparently no longer considered cool in the wake of Greg Norman’s semi-retirement, the days may be numbered when a dozen or so Australians would routinely be ranked in the top 100 in the world.
Europe, on the other hand, is going from strength to strength.
For the first time since 1992, it has the world’s four top-ranked players – Martin Kaymer, Lee Westwood, Luke Donald and Graeme McDowell.
Americans Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson … remember them? … are ranked fifth and sixth, followed by two more Europeans, Paul Casey and Rory McIlroy.
The fact that five of the six Europeans, with the exception of German Kaymer, are from England or Northern Ireland is probably more than a co-incidence.
The Australians are headed by Robert Allenby at No.26 with Geoff Ogilvy then Adam Scott following directly afterwards.
Donald jumped from ninth to third when he won the World Golf Championships Match Play final here on Sunday, beating Kaymer 3&2.
It was the second successive all-European final.
“European golf has been great,” said 26-year-old Kaymer, who appears destined to remain at or near the top for many years.
Added Donald: “We’ve really had a purple patch in world golf.”
If Australian golf fans are concerned, imagine what’s going through the mind of US PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.
Non-Americans have won four of the past five WGC events and Westwood and McIlroy have stated they do not plan to play the tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship in May.
Woods, and to a lesser extent Mickelson, for a long time disguised the fact that American golf was in decline, but Australian golf may be on the same downward spiral.
The jury is still out but the evidence is mounting, and not in a good way.
gerald
Guest
Maybe you could count the South African guys as Aussies, as we share so much else :-)
Jim Boyce
Guest
Interesting stuff. In 2009 it was stated that membership at golf clubs in the USA had plummetted by 15%. I haven't seen further comment on that but can hardly imagine they have increased or recovered. In any major sport if Americans start to fall down the rankings then so does the sport, firstly TV time, then sponsorship funding and then grass roots eg tennis. The amount of time that golf requires both in practice and then competition for the non-professional golfer eats away at family time which is being eroded on the other side by working longer hours to keep your job. Something has to give. So you fill it with less formalised sport/recreation such as mountain biking. The next thing to watch is the US property market which has used golf courses for the focus of private residential estates as has the hotel industry, have a look at the Mirvac country club hotel properties. The corporate market is still there but even deals done done on golf courses is pretty pre GFC. Intersted in responses