Ballarat, Australia: A partnership with the US-based PGA Tour or even the Saudi-backed Super Golf League is one of the possible options as Australian golf seeks to return the country’s premier championship to the colors of its old glory.
Golf Australia chief executive James Sutherland says several possibilities are on the table for the Australian Open, which has been canceled over the past two years due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
The event is finally back on schedule to be held at the Victoria Course in Melbourne’s famous sandbelts in late 2022.
Sutherland, who spoke to Reuters about the latest figures showing a 21% increase in the overall number of Australians playing golf, said favors teaming up with an overseas tour for a co-sanctioned event and There were opposition.
“We certainly have significant aspirations for the Australian Open going forward as an event,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
“If co-sanctioning one of the international tours is something that suits him, then we are really open to it and will definitely entertain it.
“Certainly, we want to see the best possible high-profile players coming, but if at the same time this adds a significant layer of cost it could be counterproductive to the broader strategy, which would help develop golf and become more Australian.” It’s about watching the players. Golf.”
Sutherland said he had not recently spoken with Greg Norman, the public face of the Saudi-backed Super Golf League, which, if successful, could potentially change the global game.
Asked whether Golf Australia would consider partnering with the WGL, he said, “I think we all need to be open to all the opportunities that exist from time to time.”
“Big picture, we want to talk to anyone but everything we do needs to fit into our strategy. It’s up to us to make sure it works for Australian golf as a whole.”
The Australian Open was won seven times by Gary Player and six times by Jack Nicklaus in his more recent times in the 1960s and 1970s.
But the quality of the field has declined in recent decades as prize money fails to keep pace with the growing wallets in the United States.
The Women’s Australian Open has gone in the other direction since 2012, becoming a co-sanctioned event with the US-based LPGA Tour, claiming a world-class arena.
It has also been canceled over the past two summers, but Sutherland said he hoped to get back next summer’s championship as a co-sanctioned event, although it was not a deal.
There have also been rumors of the Men’s and Women’s Open being held simultaneously on the same course, with different tees, a format that has worked successfully at the Vic Open, although Sutherland did not comment directly on this.
In general, Sutherland wants more professional tournaments for women, and aims to boost participation numbers at all levels, among other things, to dispel the widespread belief that the sport is too full.
While the 2019-20 fiscal year saw a sharp rise in the number of male golfers, women’s participation was almost flat, with barely 2% of the female population (above 15 years of age) choosing a club.
“There is no short-term fix, but from bottom to top we need to attract more girls to the game,” Sutherland said.
“It’s not that young people, women and girls don’t like golf. We didn’t make the game as appealing to them as we could and should have been.”
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