Time To Hold A Major In A Non-English Speaking Country?

[ward peyronnin]

They are

Northern Ireland

[Michael Tamburrini]

They play plenty of events in non english speaking countries.
They are majors for the players in them-just not considerd that by the worldwide press and public.


Move one of the four current majors to a non english speaking country-won't be a major very long.
Majors evolve-The China Open may well be a major one day-The PGA is certainly opening the door for that with its mediocre courses.
The only possible major that could move successfully would be the Open Championship-but why would they?
Theu command the best sites and have 160 years of tradition on their side.


That said in another 10 years there won't be a classic links big enough to host the best equipment players.

It's not just the courses that the PGA uses which are mediocre - the media coverage (on TV and online) of the PGA basically screams that it doesn't want to be a major. 


The Masters - online live at Amen Corner all day: fewer adverts on the live coverage.
US Open - live all day on Fox from 10am - 8pm.
British Open - live all day from 6:30am - 9pm.  Shorter ad breaks.
US PGA - don't come on air until 1pm then we get 4 shots, adverts, 4 shots, adverts for 6 hours.  It's pretty much unwatchable.


Granted, the courses don't help much either.

[Jon Wiggett]

Michael,


watch it on the BBC where there are no adverts 

[Thomas Dai]

Is there the daylight/climate available in some potential countries to permit play by a full field to be watched live on US tv?
Atb

[Michael Tamburrini]

Michael,


watch it on the BBC where there are no adverts 

I was, but it was glaringly obvious when TNT went to another add break (usually after Mickelson, Rahm, McIlroy and Fowler had hit a shot each) and we got to watch players at +4 uneventfully play random holes about the course.


It should go back to matchplay.  It's a damning indictment on golf that the top players in the world NEVER play each other at matchplay.  OK, for a second I'm going to pretend I'm in charge of the tournament:


Top 50 in the world.  No invites or special exemptions.  Make it the toughest major to get in to.


3 rounds of strokeplay (Wed - Fri or do two rounds on Thu).  The Top 15 make the matchplay section with the number 1 seed sitting out the first round.  These matches would be played over the weekend.


Golf shouldn't be scared of matchplay, it should be using it to build some rivalries amongst players.  And if it's an 18 hole final TV isn't going to have too much dead air to fill (even a 6&5 pasting would only be an hour).  Tennis manages to cope just fine with games not going to a final set.  And hell, TNT could just do what they really want to anyway and show adverts the entire time, rather than having to interrupt them for the odd golf shot.

[Josh Stevens]

Is the USA an English speaking country?  I thought they spoke American?

[ward peyronnin]

How about Wales?

[Martin Toal]

I don't know why holding a major in a non English Speaking country is important in and of itself.  There are plenty of other tours that play in non-English speaking countries for local opportunities.


P.S.  Golf isn't alone, The best Basketball players play in the US and Canada...Ditto for Hockey, Baseball, and American Football.

You could round up the number of people outside the US and Canada who regularly play baseball and American Football and put them all on Tiger Woods' private plane.


Hockey is played in quite a few countries, ice hockey in rather fewer.


So what about football (aka soccer)?

[BHoover]

I don't know why holding a major in a non English Speaking country is important in and of itself.  There are plenty of other tours that play in non-English speaking countries for local opportunities.


P.S.  Golf isn't alone, The best Basketball players play in the US and Canada...Ditto for Hockey, Baseball, and American Football.

You could round up the number of people outside the US and Canada who regularly play baseball and American Football and put them all on Tiger Woods' private plane.


Hockey is played in quite a few countries, ice hockey in rather fewer.


So what about football (aka soccer)?

If it isn't played on a sheet of ice, it isn't hockey.

[Kalen Braley]

My only point was, the best of the best for those sports play primarily in North America....why not golf too?


P.S.  Aren't like half of the worlds top 150 golfers from the US?


P.P.S.  I don't know why a team sport is any fundamentally different than an individual sport, when it comes to this topic...

[MClutterbuck]

Going from 4 to 5 majors has devalued women´s golf. I hope administrators don´t try to do the same with men´s.


Major status needs tradition, player recognition, classic or great courses, and lots of money.


Countries not currently hosting majors that could have these qualities: 


Australia, but it is English speaking (kind of).
Japan, up to a point


Korea, lacks tradition, recognition, courses
South Africa up to a point, do we count it as English speaking give it is 1 of several official languages?
Continental Europe, up to a point
Only one Spanish speaking country outside Spain has tradition, but has no courses, or money.


I would not screw up the majors. They are doing fine. What would really be interesting I think is to have a real WGC series, with maybe double the amount of events and leading to a special prize, and getting you in to the Tour Championship and Race to Dubai.


WGCs should be held in:
US
UK
Continental Europe (rotating basis)
Japan
Australia (Australian Open should be given that status)
Latin America (rotating basis with Argentina Open every x years)
South Africa
Rest of Asia (rotating basis)


On an Olympic year the Olympics becomes an WGC for points purposes and replaces the closest WGC of that year.

[Thomas Dai]

5th men's major...
After Sandy Lyle won The Players in 1987 an interviewer asked him what the difference was between winning The Players and winning The Open, which Sandy had done in 1985.
My recollection is that Sandy replied "About 100 years"!
Atb

[RussBaribault]

Words can not express how much I despise the New York Slimes and their hate America thinking that is so pervasive at their failing organization. Its a requirement to have a low IQ to work there?

Lets just go after the low hanging fruit why this is a terrible idea. First the organization that runs the PGA Championship is the PGA of AMERICA......i repeat AMERICA. Second, guess this twit doesn't understand how holding the PGA in a place that would actually be A) non english speaking and B) have courses and people to support it have major times differences and would limit TV exposure for most viewers especially in the USA where most of the revenue is derived. Third, if they held it internationally what would that do the PGA events the week before and after? Certainly tournaments hosts and sponsors wouldn't like it when all the top players skip those events. The author is not bright enough to understand that moving the PGA was strictly because the tour wanted to move it because the FEDEX playoffs have not been able to compete against football for TV viewers.

Maybe she wants to hold the PGA Championship in Communist China where golf is almost illegal. Banned to members of the Communist Party and where they destroying golf courses all over the country. I hear Pakistan, Yemen, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon have some lovely golf courses and is rip for golf expansion.

Finally...the ones viewing this issue as a "Nagging" are liberal NYT reporters who only goal in life is to turn everything upside and inside out.

 

[Tom_Doak]

WGCs should be held in:
US
UK
Continental Europe (rotating basis)
Japan
Australia (Australian Open should be given that status)
Latin America (rotating basis with Argentina Open every x years)
South Africa
Rest of Asia (rotating basis)

I think that was the original intent ... but the players didn't want to fly to other continents during the prime season, and balked at it.  They even balked at having more of them in the UK.  And the sponsors won't put up the big bucks if the stars aren't all going to play.

[Tom_Doak]

It should go back to matchplay.  It's a damning indictment on golf that the top players in the world NEVER play each other at matchplay.  OK, for a second I'm going to pretend I'm in charge of the tournament:


Top 50 in the world.  No invites or special exemptions.  Make it the toughest major to get in to.


3 rounds of strokeplay (Wed - Fri or do two rounds on Thu).  The Top 15 make the matchplay section with the number 1 seed sitting out the first round.  These matches would be played over the weekend.


Golf shouldn't be scared of matchplay, it should be using it to build some rivalries amongst players.  And if it's an 18 hole final TV isn't going to have too much dead air to fill (even a 6&5 pasting would only be an hour).  Tennis manages to cope just fine with games not going to a final set.  And hell, TNT could just do what they really want to anyway and show adverts the entire time, rather than having to interrupt them for the odd golf shot.

Why not just start with the top 16?  That way the sponsors would be assured of a pretty good final.  [Check that:  you could still have Alex Noren v Tommy Fleetwood.]  So, maybe the top 12, last year's champ, and three sponsors' exemptions?  That's probably not going to qualify as a "major," but lots of people would love to see it.

[MClutterbuck]

WGCs should be held in:
US
UK
Continental Europe (rotating basis)
Japan
Australia (Australian Open should be given that status)
Latin America (rotating basis with Argentina Open every x years)
South Africa
Rest of Asia (rotating basis)

I think that was the original intent ... but the players didn't want to fly to other continents during the prime season, and balked at it.  They even balked at having more of them in the UK.  And the sponsors won't put up the big bucks if the stars aren't all going to play.

It was, I even had the pleasure of seeing Tiger and David Duval win one in Buenos Aires.


I agree with the diagnosis of the problem at the time. With the new calendar however, there seems to be more space August - December for these.

[Tim Leahy]

They play plenty of events in non english speaking countries.
They are majors for the players in them-just not considerd that by the worldwide press and public.


Move one of the four current majors to a non english speaking country-won't be a major very long.
Majors evolve-The China Open may well be a major one day-The PGA is certainly opening the door for that with its mediocre courses.
The only possible major that could move successfully would be the Open Championship-but why would they?
Theu command the best sites and have 160 years of tradition on their side.


That said in another 10 years there won't be a classic links big enough to host the best equipment players.

It's not just the courses that the PGA uses which are mediocre - the media coverage (on TV and online) of the PGA basically screams that it doesn't want to be a major. 


The Masters - online live at Amen Corner all day: fewer adverts on the live coverage.
US Open - live all day on Fox from 10am - 8pm.
British Open - live all day from 6:30am - 9pm.  Shorter ad breaks.
US PGA - don't come on air until 1pm then we get 4 shots, adverts, 4 shots, adverts for 6 hours.  It's pretty much unwatchable.


Granted, the courses don't help much either.

ads = adverts

[Wayne_Kozun]

The countries that should have majors are primarily English speaking countries that have good courses, people who care about golf who will come to events, and produce quality players.


Those countries would be: Australia, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and (the Republic of) Ireland.


I have no issues with also contesting majors in other countries that care about golf like Korea, Japan, Spain and Argentina, but I think the other countries are more deserving.

[Wayne_Kozun]

[size=78%]You could round up the number of people outside the US and Canada who regularly play baseball and American Football and put them all on Tiger Woods' private plane. [/size]

Hockey is played in quite a few countries, ice hockey in rather fewer.

Hockey is ice hockey and it is played extensively in many countries in Europe including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Czechia, Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Kazakhstan, etc. Field hockey is played on (often artificial) grass by Women in skirts.


What you say is not so true about Baseball as it is played a fair bit in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Many of the best players come from the Dominican Republic and it is played in several other Latin American countries like Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, etc

[Jon Wiggett]

My only point was, the best of the best for those sports play primarily in North America....why not golf too?


P.S.  Aren't like half of the worlds top 150 golfers from the US?

Kalen,


that is because the ranking system is weighted in favour of the PGA tour. If you switch the weighting round to favour the European Tour then hey presto very few US golfers. Having said that only three US golfers in the top 10.


I do agree that it makes sense to keep the majors where the most spectators/viewers are.


Jon

[Kalen Braley]

My only point was, the best of the best for those sports play primarily in North America....why not golf too?


P.S.  Aren't like half of the worlds top 150 golfers from the US?

Kalen,


that is because the ranking system is weighted in favour of the PGA tour. If you switch the weighting round to favour the European Tour then hey presto very few US golfers. Having said that only three US golfers in the top 10.


I do agree that it makes sense to keep the majors where the most spectators/viewers are.


Jon

Jom


I know this certainly could very well be one of those circular loop issues here, but the PGA tour events are weighted more because more higher ranked players play in them! 

[Bruce Katona]

Wayne:


Hockey (not ice hockey) is played by many countries in warmer climates where ice isn't really practical. 


My daughters hockey coach (who earned international caps for Egypt and played in the Olympics for the USA) would have looked a bit silly in a skort since his hairy legs weren't really complimented by this attire.  I'm not sure you'd want to get in front of his slap shot (in hockey they call it a drive).


BK

[BHoover]

Wayne:


Hockey (not ice hockey) is played by many countries in warmer climates where ice isn't really practical. 


My daughters hockey coach (who earned international caps for Egypt and played in the Olympics for the USA) would have looked a bit silly in a skort since his hairy legs weren't really complimented by this attire.  I'm not sure you'd want to get in front of his slap shot (in hockey they call it a drive).


BK

Hockey = ice
Field hockey = anything else

[Jim Nugent]

If you switch the weighting round to favour the European Tour then hey presto very few US golfers. Having said that only three US golfers in the top 10.

Do you think the Euro Tour is better than the U.S. Tour? 

[Norbert P]

  I assume that Justin Rose would chime in suggesting the Olympics is a Major event.   He won his medal in a Portuguese speaking country.


  The same could be said about any player who has won the Scottish Open.    Certainly a borderline English-speaking nation.