Senior British Open Championship: Richard Gillisreflects on the struggle of the European Seniors Tour to remain viable and attractive to fans

Nick Faldo's 50th birthday couldn't come soon enough for the European Seniors Tour. The six-time major winner's presence at Muirfield this week has brought some much-needed publicity to the Senior British Open Championship.

Alongside Faldo will be some other familiar names: Mark O'Meara and Wayne Grady are also making their debuts in the event, with the latter celebrating his birthday tomorrow, the first day of the tournament.

However, the viability of seniors golf in Europe is less than certain as the greatest marketing opportunity in the history of the game may be about to pass them by.

Over the next year, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam also reach the half-century milestone.

Along with Faldo and Ballesteros, who retired from all golf last week, this group won 16 major championships and formed the spine of the European team's subsequent Ryder Cup successes.

Their success fuelled a golf boom in Europe, a 17-year period bookmarked by Ballesteros's first British Open win at Lytham in 1979 and Nick Faldo's third Masters green jacket in 1996.

Barely 18 months separates the birthdays of each of the famous five, all born between April 1957 and September 1958.

Asked if this is the start of a serious seniors career, Faldo replied: "I will do the best I can, I will see how I enjoy this little run. If I'm happy going out and being with the guys again, it will be interesting to me."

Realistically, the chances of the next Ryder Cup captain playing more than a few tournaments a year in Europe are remote. His new career as a TV pundit in the US will see to that.

Faldo's career choices highlight an uncomfortable commercial reality for the administrators of the European Tour. Never before has such a concentration of talent come along at the same time. The profile of these players could take the European Seniors Tour to a new stage in its development. But, it is a one-time offer.

Andy Stubbs, director of the European Seniors Tour, says: "It is the same challenge the regular European Tour has had over time: how do we get our best players playing over here on a regular basis? And make no mistake about it, the money does matter."

Golfers on the Champions Tour in the US play for average prize funds of $1.5 - 2 million (€1.1 - €1.5m) a tournament, compared to that of around €290,000 each week in Europe. The first prize is normally 15 per cent of the total pot, which equates to just over €43,000.

"Our guys are playing for a quarter of what they could get in the US," says Stubbs.

There is no doubting the appetite for nostalgia among sports fans on both sides of Atlantic. The veteran stars of tennis, football and a host of other sports are enjoying a profitable Indian summer to their playing careers.

The financial model of seniors tour golf is based largely on the support of regional tourist boards and large hotel resort chains, which sponsor events in return for media exposure.

Tournaments in countries such as Barbados and Turkey exist to promote the courses and regions in which they are held. The cost of staging a European Senior Tour event is roughly twice that of the prize fund. This cost is split between the local tourist board, the privately owned resort company and whichever sponsors are attracted to the event.

Bringing these together is often a third party.

Television distribution is handled by European Tour Productions (ETP), a joint venture company owned by the Tour and IMG, the agency created by the late Mark McCormack.

Individual event promoters pay between €37,000-€44,000 to ETP to cover the costs of producing the 48-minute highlights programme. And television coverage of the tour reflects this financial arrangement, showcasing the local resort and offering a postcard view of the host country.

The programme is seen around the world on various satellite and cable channels, including Sky in Britain and the Golf Channel in the US and Japan.

The value of this exposure to the host tourist board is put at €1.1 million by the Tour. This figure is based on the cost of 48 minutes of advertising at the equivalent time on each channel.

The core of the tour's schedule takes place between May and September, mainly in Britain and Ireland. These tournaments include the AIB Irish Seniors Open and the Ryder Cup Wales Senior Open at Royal St David's.

These events are a legacy of various Ryder Cup bids, comprised of interested groups such as sponsors and tourist boards from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In return for the prize of playing host to the Cup, the European Tour encourages prospective commercial partners to "show a commitment to golf across all of the Tour's platforms", according to one event promoter.

AIB have backed the Irish event since 1997. Jim Kelly, the company's sponsorship director, said this was "the first piece of the jigsaw" aimed at securing sponsorship of the Ryder Cup at The K Club last year.

The bank uses the Senior Open as a hospitality opportunity, offering clients and employees the lure of playing with professionals in the pre-tournament pro-am. The media exposure gained by AIB is limited, and attendances also low-key. This is a trend, according to Kelly.

He feels there is a big question facing golf authorities, not just the seniors: "What will golf look like in a few years time?" asks Kelly, who suggests the golf economy is more fragile than it might appear. "Attendances in the US are falling. And we have no idea what would happen to interest in golf if Tiger were to be injured or decide to give up.

"The bar has been raised," he says. "People in Ireland have had the Ryder Cup, two American Express WGC events. We have to remember there are only three million of us here, the Tour can't expect people to come out in large numbers for lesser events."

He says the European Tour's aim is to raise prize money for its members, the players. Likewise, the venues have their own commercial agenda, either to publicise hotels or, increasingly, to sell property around the course.

Andrew White, managing director of WSM Sport, promotes a number of events on the Seniors Tour.

White's vision of the future starts with a name change.

" 'Seniors Tour' is just not an attractive phrase," he says. "They should follow the example of the US PGA and rebrand. If 'Seniors' works, why did the Americans change it to Champions Tour?"

According to White, this offers an insight into the approach of the tour's administrators.

"The European Seniors Tour is a golf-led organisation, not a marketing-led one," says White. "It does a great job for its members, the players, but it needs to reassess the way the tour is promoted in order to drive it forward. Obviously the players themselves want to see bigger purses, but there is no commercial argument for this to happen at present. Let's face it, the world doesn't wait to see who won the Seniors event each week."

Others go further. One promoter, who preferred not to be named, said when asked about the future of Seniors golf in Ireland, "It's over. End of story. Nobody is interested".

Against this backdrop, some promoters want to see a review of the division of TV money. More specifically, they say the Seniors should get a bigger cut of television revenues from the European Tour's deal with Sky, which underpins golf this side of the Atlantic. Were this to happen, and there is no sign of that being on the cards, this money could go to funding the development of a more even seniors tour schedule. This way, the big names coming in to the over-age bracket would consider playing in Europe more frequently.

The other model is to encourage the players themselves to own and promote their events on the tour. This way they could guarantee good fields, generate television interest and bring in sponsors. The prototype for this type of event could be the Nigel Mansell Sunseeker International Classic played at Woodbury Park, which takes place in July. A source within the European Tour said this was being considered, and that approaches had been made.

In the meantime, Faldo and the rest will be no more than fleeting visitors to the European Seniors circuit.