CADDIE'S ROLE:The European Tour is heavily reliant on other jurisdictions as a source of venues and sponsors, writes COLIN BYRNE
IT IS the time of year when the tour divides in two. It splits almost as starkly as those who have and those who have not; those who have a tour card for next year are trying to elevate their status for next year with goals from getting into the top 60 in the order of merit for entrance to the Race to Dubai to securing a top-30 position for exemption to the British Open and climbing into the top 50 in the world rankings in order to qualify for majors and world events. For others it is simply a question of survival.
The personal objectives depending on your status are varied and more acute at the lower level of the pecking order. In Spain last week, Michael Jonzon from Sweden and Marten Lafaber from Holland were showing some remarkable survival instincts in their quest to secure a place in the top 115 of the rankings for next year.
Jonzon went on to win and Lafaber finished fifth, both secured their playing status for next year in doing so. Some people need to be put under the most intense pressure in the final hour in order to perform. Having tread water for most of the year those two suddenly shot very low scores. It probably says something about the psyche of the professional golfer.
Having endured a frustrating earlier part of the year through injury my own boss, Alex Noren, has transformed his season whereby he is now chasing the upper echelons of the rankings in an attempt to secure higher European and Tour status. There is no doubt that all non otherwise exempt golfers do at least have a moment in late summer when they see the seasons change and time running out to secure their playing rights for the following year.
Golf is undoubtedly an elite type of sport. To put a basic play on the reward systems for professional golfers: the rich do tend to get richer. But then again that is what makes the various tours so skilful and sought after in the first place.
Retaining a tour card in the US means making around three quarters of a million dollars. In Europe it is considerably less, about a quarter of a million euros will secure a card for next year. It is nonetheless still a substantial living for hitting a golf ball in these extremely harsh economic conditions.
Professional golf is a case of survival of the fittest, it is a ruthless way to judge somebody’s worth but it is the nature of playing sport for a living; your mettle is being tested every time you put on your spikes and put a card in your back pocket.
With the inexorable spread of the European Tour (I write this on a flight to Singapore bound for a co-sanctioned European Tour event) naturally there are issues concerning entering other jurisdictions. It is easy to forget how awkward it was to travel to many parts of the world a couple of decades ago. Crossing borders can cause some agitation for those more used to a closed environment.
This week’s Barclays Singapore Open is an example of a cross-border situation. The field consists of the top players on the Asian Tour, the European Tour, and elsewhere that the sponsors justifiably want their players to come from. The European Tour will argue its case for extending the maximum amount of positions for its players in these co-sanctioned events and likewise the Asian Tour. The recent Omega European Masters held in Switzerland was a co-sanctioned event whereby the European Tour had to yield places in the event to accommodate Asian players.
There has been much banter about the merits of the compromise. It is both an indication of the tours involved and the necessity to extend borders in order to bolster each tour. The US Tour stretched its borders north in to Canada and south in to Puerto Rico and Mexico on a handful of occasions. But it doesn’t seem vital yet to the survival of the PGA Tour to cross borders.
The European Tour, however, is heavily reliant on South Africa, the Middle East and Asia as a source of both venues and sponsors. Without these events the European Tour would be curtailed by almost three months.
We will have the peculiar situation of having the Australian Masters in Melbourne (co-sanctioned with the Australasian and European Tours) being staged at the same time as the co-sanctioned Asian Tour event in Hong Kong next month. As a player it is nice to have the option to play. In terms of making sense of the multi-faceted events it is a little confusing.
It seems you have to get smart when you are entering these multi-layered events so that you enter in the category that most likely affords you a place in the original line-up. Take the example of Alex this week: the winners’ category three was so packed with players that he, as a recent winner, was low down on the list and as a result only got into the event last Thursday. As a relatively high ranked player on the European Tour it does seem to raise the question about exemption for European Tour events. These players go though the gruel of the Tour School or a season on the Challenge Tour in order to secure playing rights and then they cannot get into the events that are truly going to elevate their status.
Also this week, in tandem with Singapore, there is an elitist little matchplay event in the south of Spain involving 16 players. A proportion of the money earned there is included in the Race to Dubai points. There will be a sob story about a player who got bumped from the final showdown in the Race to Dubai as a result of the cosy little challenge on the Costa Del Sol.
The battle for playing rights is a drama that is unfolding on the lower rungs of the European Tour at this time of year.
