With the DP World Tour again within the sand-belt area for the Australian Open this week, it’s time to revisit a long-standing argument within the {golfing} world.
Ought to skilled golf add a fifth main to its repertoire?
Nicely over a yr in the past, forward of The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee made the case for The Gamers Championship changing into golf’s fifth main.
I’m right here to let you know that one other occasion ought to carry this distinction: the Australian Open, not The Gamers.
Elements of Chamblee’s argument rested on his animus in direction of LIV Golf, whereas different strong factors he made stemmed from the wealthy historical past of The Gamers.
“LIV has managed to poach some compelling gamers away from the PGA Tour, and it’s made the majors extra compelling,” Chamblee mentioned on Golf Channel’s Dwell From set in July 2023.
“There ought to be extra sting in defecting away from the PGA Tour. I can’t consider a greater method to do this than make the Gamers Championship a significant. It ought to have been a significant eons in the past, and I consider it’s. However it ought to have that designation.”
The Gamers Championship has lengthy had one of many strongest fields in golf and is contested yearly at TPC Sawgrass in Ponta Vedra Seaside, Florida, every spring.
Yearly, pundits like Chamblee argue whether or not or not The Gamers ought to be thought of a significant championship.
However golf is a recreation performed all around the world.
The USA already hosts three main championships, so why not comply with tennis and add a significant within the land down below?
“Australia is a sports-mad nation. Golf is a type of sports activities we love!” mentioned Luke Elvy, Australian broadcaster and journalist. “Like the remainder of the world, participation in golf had been dwindling pre-Covid however has grown considerably since. The pandemic growth has been additional boosted by Cameron Smith and Minjee Lee successful main championships in 2022.”
Golf in Australia has a protracted and wealthy historical past, with hundreds of thousands of Aussies taking part in the game yearly.
The land down below has additionally produced many world-class gamers, together with many who’ve gained a few of the greatest championships in golf over the previous few a long time.
Smith, who hails from Brisbane, gained the Claret Jug at St. Andrew’s in 2022. He fended off the likes of Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, and Cameron Younger to win his first main championship. He’s on this week’s Australian Open area, joined by 2006 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, 2015 PGA Championship winner Jason Day, and perennial main contender Marc Leishman—all of whom have made an unimaginable mark on Australian golf. Different notable Aussies taking part in this week embrace Lucas Herbert, Min Woo Lee, and younger up-and-comer Elvis Smilye, who gained the Australian PGA Championship on Sunday. Final yr’s winner, Chilean Joaquin Niemann, can be again to defend his title.
Adam Scott is maybe the most well-liked Australian golfer of the twenty first century, and his solely main title got here at Augusta Nationwide in 2013. However Scott, now 44, shouldn’t be on this week’s Australian Open area, opting to relaxation and recuperate after a protracted, albeit profitable 2024 marketing campaign.
His absence doesn’t diminish this week’s Australian Open, although. However skilled golf has executed simply that for the higher a part of 30 years.
“Australia has contributed to golf’s ecosystem for over a century and can proceed to take action,” Elvy added. “To ignore a nation with world-class gamers and programs is simply to the detriment of the sport’s leaders.”
Again within the day, Australia’s greatest match, the Australian Open, was a marquee occasion on the golf calendar, usually performed in November or December—the height of the Aussie summer season.
Among the recreation’s greatest legends, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, and Greg Norman, have all gained the Stonehaven Cup, the trophy given yearly to the winner of the Australian Open.
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“The Australian Open has over 100 years of historical past,” Elvy famous. “It was thought of the ‘fifth main’ in the course of the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties when legendary businessman Kerry Packer bankrolled the sphere.”
However for the reason that early Nineteen Nineties, the Australian Open has misplaced its luster.
“I actually don’t know, in all probability a scarcity of cash,” Elvy mentioned when requested why the PGA Tour has had no everlasting presence in Australia. “The PGA Tour has hosted three President’s Cups in Australia—in 1998, 2011, and 2019—and is scheduled once more in 2028. All of them have been overwhelming successes as a result of Australians love world-class sports activities!”
Whereas overlooking Australia, the PGA Tour has staged occasions in South Korea, Japan, China, Mexico, and Scotland within the twenty first century.
South Korea, Japan, and China all rank among the many high 12 greatest economies on this planet, with the latter two becoming a member of the US as having the three largest outputs of gross home product (GDP).
Loads of industrial alternatives exist in every of those nations.
However those self same prospects exist in Australia, the thirteenth largest economic system and a rustic with one of many highest GDPs per capita.
But, the higher echelons {of professional} golf have let Australia go by the wayside.
Therefore, Norman, the LIV Golf CEO, sensed a possibility in 2023. The Saudi-backed tour staged a match in Adelaide—Australia’s fifth-largest metropolis—and the occasion has develop into the most important on the LIV Golf calendar. Roughly 94,000 followers flocked to The Grange Golf Membership in Adelaide this previous April, the second yr LIV staged an occasion in Australia. The match has been so profitable that the World Golf Awards listed LIV Golf Adelaide as its finest golf occasion for the second consecutive yr.
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“Australians are starved of seeing world-class gamers often,” Elvy added.
“Greg Norman knew an occasion can be an enormous success as a result of he is aware of our ardour for the sport. Golf in Australia has been carried by the likes of Adam Scott, Cam Smith, and Marc Leishman during the last decade—and to a lesser extent Jason Day as a result of he not often returns.”
“Sure, now we have had glimpses of greatness like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Jordan Spieth, however we wish to see one of the best of one of the best compete often. LIV introduced one of the best area to Australia outdoors of these three Presidents Cups for the reason that halcyon days of the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties.”
In 2011, a few of the finest gamers on this planet competed within the Australian Open, held the week earlier than Royal Melbourne hosted the President’s Cup.
“After I was internet hosting Australian Open TV protection, we had a star-studded area on the 2011 Australian Open,” Elvy reminisced. “I requested Tiger concerning the nice record of champions on the Stonehaven Cup, and he mentioned, ‘I wish to get my identify on that trophy.’ He completed third behind [Australian] Greg Chalmers that yr, however the crowds have been huge!”
Woods by no means did win the Australian Open, however when McIlroy returned to the land down below in 2013, he emerged victorious.
Spieth then gained in document style the next yr.
“What an unimaginable honor to place my identify on this trophy,” Spieth mentioned after his Australian Open victory in 2014. “With these situations, the golf course could be very tough. It’s undoubtedly one of the best spherical I’ve ever performed and one of the best win I’ve ever had.”
Spieth went on to win The Masters and the U.S. Open in 2015 and The Open in 2017.
He then gained the Australian Open once more in 2016.
McIlroy, Spieth, and one of the best gamers on this planet ought to proceed to play on the Australian Open every year, simply as Nicklaus, Palmer, and Watson used to.
Ought to they journey to Australia yearly, gamers will discover a few of the most passionate sports activities followers on the planet and uncover a few of the world’s finest programs too.
The famed sand-belt area round Melbourne has 5 programs ranked amongst Golf Digest’s Prime 100 on this planet.
Royal Melbourne is maybe probably the most well-known of Australia’s programs, because it boasts the identical architect who designed Augusta Nationwide: Alister MacKenzie.
Kingston Heath—host of this week’s Australian Open and the 2028 President’s Cup—Metropolitan Golf Membership, Victoria Golf Membership, and Peninsula Kingswood Nation Membership all have the pedigree to host the world’s finest golfers on an annual foundation.
Every of those programs sits inside metropolitan Melbourne, one among Australia’s largest cities and one of many nice cities in the whole world.
From a financial standpoint, Melbourne has no scarcity of company alternatives. The identical will be mentioned for Sydney, maybe probably the most well-known metropolis in Australia.
Better Sydney additionally has a powerful repertoire of golf programs, which embrace The Australian Golf Membership, not removed from world well-known Bondi Seaside. The Lakes Golf Membership and New South Wales Golf Membership, positioned round Sydney, have additionally hosted Australian Opens.
Loads of programs can host this prestigious championship, much like how the R&A has a delegated ‘rota’ of golf equipment that host The Open every year. However now {the golfing} world has to endure a protracted time frame—almost 9 months—between The Masters and The Open every year.
The Australian Open would assist fill that void in November, December, or early February—at no matter time most accurately fits golf’s new skilled world order. Because the PGA Tour agreed to do enterprise with the Saudi Arabian Public Funding Fund (PIF), this new governing physique ought to work to develop the sport of golf globally.
A method to take action is by making the Australian Open a significant championship.
Get one of the best gamers on this planet to compete for the Stonehaven Cup.
Heck, even Nicklaus referred to the Australian Open as a “fifth main” in a 2016 interview with Australian Golf Digest.
So to the powers that be, have a look at what LIV Golf has completed in Adelaide. The Australian Open might be a lot greater, a lot grander than that occasion.
Aussies have been starved for many years; it’s time to feed them with one thing they deserve: a significant championship.
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By means of. You should definitely try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.
