If A Guy Doesn’t Play In Europe Why Should He Play For Europe? Discuss

Writing in The Scotsman newspaper the very excellent John Huggan along with Andrew Coltart lay out the logic on why the European Tour should pull their finger out of their ass and use the obvious leverage of the Ryder Cup to force players to come and play more events on the ailing European Tour.  Regular readers will know I’ve been arguing this very point for years.

Huggan has seen through the Tour’s propaganda that claims 48 events in 26 countries worldwide.

Sadly for those in favour of the latter route, the former is clearly winning the battle. According to the European Tour website: “The 2014 International schedule presents 12 months of enthralling tournament action featuring 48 tournaments in 26 countries worldwide.”

Which it doesn’t, of course. So far this “year” â€" which began back in November â€" the 2014 tour has comprised five tournaments in South Africa â€" two limited-field events and three boasting relatively low money and well below-average fields â€" and the Hong Kong Open. It has, to say the least, not been pretty.

Coltart makes my point that the European Tour has stood idly by with its hands in its pockets while all its stars have just shagged off.

“One of the problems is that the tour has never really penalised its top players for a lack of support,” says former Ryder Cup player Andrew Coltart, now one of the more interesting and informed contributors to Sky’s golf coverage. “It has always given them a choice when it came to where they should play â€" here or in the States. But that strategy hasn’t worked. Virtually all of them have all but disappeared in any case. That’s disappointing on two counts. The players have displayed little loyalty to the place where they all came from. And the tour hasn’t stood up to them enough.

He goes on to suggest the European Tour use the Ryder Cup as leverage.

“If I was the tour I would use the Ryder Cup as more of a bargaining tool,” contends Coltart, who played in the 1999 matches at the Country Club at Brookline, Massachusetts. “If the players really do want to play, I’d ask for more of a commitment to the qualifying process. What I wouldn’t do is bend over backwards to make it as easy as possible for them to make the side without actually playing in Europe very often. That, of course, is a brave move. But, if a guy can’t commit to Europe and play in Europe, why does he deserve to represent Europe?

“Not that long ago, things were different. I grew up on the tour playing against Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam on a regular basis. They played a lot of their golf in Europe. Now, the best Europeans hardly ever do that.”

My solution was that National Opens and established Tour events would carry much greater Ryder Cup qualification points irrespective of their prize money.  Huggan suggests a similar system of compulsory Masters events as seen in the world of tennis.

It seems we are all calling on George O’Grady to roll up the sleeves and do something.  The question is will he?

 

Read John Huggan’s full article in the Scotsman here