European Tour Mirroring LPGA Tour Woes

by Ryan Ballengee on Sep 9, 2008 11:25 PM EDT Comment 7 comments

In about 60 days, the European Tour will begin its 2008-09 season and kick off the first year of the concept known as Race to Dubai. It is the European Tour's answer to the FedEx Cup and is basically a renaming of the pretigious Order of Merit. At the end of the season in November, the European Tour will hold the $10 million Dubai World Championship to conclude its year. The winner will earn $1.7 million. Also, the Tour will award another $10 million in bonus money among the best in the final standings. Potentially, the final putt of the tournament could be worth almost $3.7 million - the biggest single tournament payout in golf.

The concept may very well be the final piece in making the European Tour more competitive for global talent with the PGA Tour. FedEx Cup Champion Vijay Singh spoke effusively about playing both the PGA Tour and the European Tour next season. Adam Scott has talked about the fun of playing in Europe next year. It is thought that world number 2 Phil Mickelson will also take his European Tour card in order to attempt qualifying for the Dubai World Championship.

This was all made possible by a quarter-billion dollar deal between the European Tour and Leisurecorp, a Dubai World spinoff company. The infusion of this mass capital to the Tour's purses, host sites, and even its headquarters is very similar to that which the LPGA Tour is experiencing today.

The LPGA Tour has never had more events held overseas than this season - eleven in total. These events are made possible because of sponsorships from wealthy and influential Asian companies that want to capitalize on the popularity of the women's game there.

Domestically speaking, though, LPGA Tour events are suffering. With sponsorship issues with Fields Group, SemGroup, Safeway, Ginn, and maybe others, the LPGA Tour domestic schedule is in trouble for 2009. Despite that, there have also never been more events with purses over $2 million - thirteen this season. The dichotomous overseas growth and domestic duldrum leads to a problem for the Tour that has to face how to maintain its United States roots and fanbase while politely following the sponsor money around the world.

The European Tour is also facing the same problem. Even setting aside the massive Dubai investment, the Tour has been growing globally to where the money is - Asia. With multiple events in China, as well as new events in India and South Korea, the Tour is following the money around the world. It is doing so to the point that there have been questions about the truth of the Tour's name.

It has also cast doubt on the future of Europe-based events. The Omega European Masters is suffering so much that it will be co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour next year so that 30 Asian players can fill out the field with Challenge Tour players (Euro Tour minor leagues) and rejects from European Tour Q-school. That cannot make Omega happy.

Fields are also suffering in other traditional European Tour events, as Alastair Tait discusses in Golfweek. Usually when fields suffer, there are fewer fans in attendance, less media attention, and - in the last part of the cycle - sponsors abandon tournaments. If the European Tour is not careful, it could be facing the very same issue the LPGA Tour is: deciding how important its roots really are.

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my calculator must be broken

I don’t see how a $1.7 million prize in one event, plus a $10 million bonus pot matches up with the $35 million Fed Ex puts up. Maybe longevity thanks to oil money ? PGA Tour first prize money is over $1 million most every week. The Euro Tour doesn’t match that. Last year, the Dubai and Euro Tour people were talking about a $20 million prize for winning their version of the Fed Ex Cup. Wonder what happened to that ?

Do you wonder if the LPGA and Asian Tours will be trading places as far as prestige and top dollar events goes ? If the big bucks are going to be in Asia, how far away will the top players be ? Now THAT could get interesting. If the top American and European players suddenly flood the Asian Tour for the money, I’m guessing that Japan, Korea, China, and wherever else they play will find a way to limit the number of foreign players coming to the tour. They do it in baseball where teams are limited to a small number of American players on each team.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Sep 10, 2008 9:41 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Appearance fees...

…that’s where the Euro Tour gets their advantage. Banned on the PGA Tour, but the Mickelsons of the world can get around 7 figures just for stopping by and playing.

The $20 million is the purse of the Dubai World Champ. and the Race to Dubai bonus pool. So, definitely not as big as the $63 million FEC total purse, but about half of the $42 million for the Tour Championship plus bonus pool.

I’m not certain that men’s golf has grown over there to the point that the Asian Tour can make a huge surge. Women’s golf, definitely,

by Ryan Ballengee on Sep 10, 2008 9:48 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'd be ticked off...

…if I was a Euro Tour player and sponsors all of a sudden started pouring big bucks over the heads of a few US players just so they show up. They end up getting more to show up than they would for winning – all of a sudden they start missing cuts and skipping town with the cash.

Right – last year – the talk was that the Dubai people were going to have a $20 first prize like the Fed Ex people have $10 million. Guess they changed that – smart move.

I was talking about the women – not the men…which makes the potential cat fights and reality show rights worth a mint ! :-)

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Sep 10, 2008 10:04 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

baseball

I assume you’re referring to Japan. Japanese baseball teams are limited in their use of US players because of the perceived advantage having Americans provides. Aside from Ryder/Solheim/President’s/Lexus/etc. Cups, golf is not a team sport and there is no advantage to being American, as the world rankings show.

I’m sure you’ll say you were “j/k” but someone will read your post without thinking through your assertion.

by dianemarie on Sep 10, 2008 10:05 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

?????

no – the assertion is right there – and it was just a question. The rule limiting American baseball players on Japanese teams could very easily be translated to golf if the governing bodies decide that only a certain number of foreign players would be allowed to have cards on the JLPGA. Nobody said anything about strictly American golfers. The Asian players would be welcomed, but American and Euro numbers (those are continents, too, D) could very easily be limited.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Sep 10, 2008 10:18 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

pie

Would Tiger be as popular in the US if he was more identified with his mother’s side of the family (Thai) than his father’s? I’d guess probably not. My point in asking is, why in the hell does it seem everyone has to engage in some form of regionalism in a sport where the best come from all over the world and compete all over the world? Maybe it’s time for all the governing bodies of all tours to be locked in a room where they can hash out reasonable divisions of the pie.

by dianemarie on Sep 10, 2008 11:25 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

it's not unusual...

…no – not the Tom Jones song :-)…for countries to protect their own, D. The US is pretty unusual for the open door policy. As an example, non-American kids are given scholarships to state colleges and universities, that are supported by taxpayer dollars, ahead of American kids.

And yes – if Tiger Woods were the same person he is today, but was only raised by his mother, he would still be the world’s most recognizable athlete, and rich beyond belief. His parents aren’t winning tournaments for him, they were the support.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Sep 10, 2008 11:36 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs