Expansion of European Tour: It seems it is now only a matter of time before a World Tour emerges. Richard Gillisreports.
The 1982 Tunisian Open was an unlikely first step toward global domination. The tournament which took place at the El Kantaoui golf club was won by Spain's Antonio Garrido and was, on the surface, just another regulation, 72-hole strokeplay event of the type that still forms the bulk of the tour's schedule. But it was arguably the most significant golf event of the last 30 years.
It was the first time the Tour had ventured outside the borders of Europe, setting a precedent that may in time lead to the formation of a World Tour.
The European Tour now stretches from China, Malaysia and Australia to the Middle East and South Africa. And next year will see the inaugural Indian Masters in New Delhi, the latest and most controversial stop-off on an ever-growing itinerary.
But when the idea was first conceived, the Tunisia Open provoked reactions ranging from puzzlement to open hostility. Ken Schofield, the former chief executive of the European Tour, was the architect.
"The Tunisian tourist board offered £60,000 provided we would make it an official event," says Schofield.
The decision was hotly contested, not least by those who believed the European Tour should remain just that. The issue was quite straight-forward, says Schofield: "Should the European Tour regard itself as simply as geographic term and say 'Thank you very much but no', or take the decision to say the European Tour can be as much about the make-up of its membership, which even in those days was very international."
History shows that Schofield's argument won out. "We took a view that we shouldn't be landlocked by our European boundary, and from that small step that freed us up to then accept much more lucrative offers as they came, firstly from the Middle East then into Asia. I feel very fortunate that I was there when these decisions were taken, as I think it helped the European golfers find year-long activity."
He recalls talking to a couple of pros before a tournament in Melbourne in the early 1990s. "What are you doing in Australia, Ken?"
"What else would you be doing in January," replied Schofield.
The Tour can now play 47 weeks a year, prompting recall of a conversation with Sandy Lyle, who was only half joking when he requested the Tour look at staging a tournament in Greenland during Christmas week. "It's getting very close to that," says Schofield, "there's not too much being taken away, of real significance, from the home market, but overseas ones have been added."
SCHOFIELD AND THETour were years ahead of their time. The subject of globalisation is on the agenda of every major sports governing body. This autumn, three of America's major leagues have been rounding up new fans in London. The NHL and NBA both packed out the O2 Arena.
Most impressive of all was a full Wembley Stadium for the first regular-season NFL game between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants. Over 40,000 tickets went in the first 90 minutes after they had been released to the public. The commitment is substantial. Dolphins fans get just eight home games a year, so to take one of them to London is a sign of intent.
In the same vein, Liverpool launched their TV station last month, LFCTV, to be followed on to the Sky platform by Arsenal's channel in January. Chelsea and Manchester United are already up and running. The long-term aim of these stations is to build the clubs' following in faraway places, most notably China, India and the Middle East.
Schofield says any scepticism of the Tour's expanding schedule was placated by the opportunity to play all year round.
What he calls the "Justin Rose generation" of players are happy to follow the sun as their tennis peers have done. He cites Formula One as a model of how sport is following the money, breaking out of its former mainly European footprint.
The Lewis Hamilton boom has ignited interest in Formula One in Britain this year, but he says the balance of power is set to shift away from Europe as the commercial hub of the sport. The focus on the fast-growing economies of China and Malaysia is "Bernie's (Ecclestone) answer to the ban on tobacco sponsorship in Europe".
Business has been the driver of globalisation in golf too. The sport has courted global companies, from HSBC bank to BMW, who are able to use golf as a way in to overseas markets.
Five tournaments on the 2007 schedule were held in China: the HSBC Champions, the Hong Kong Open, the TCL Classic, the China Open and the Asian Open. This adds to the rise of golf on the early-season Middle East swing, taking in the Abu Dhabi Open, the Qatar Masters and the Dubai Desert Classic.
The organisers of the latter event, Golf in Dubai, are also behind the European Tour's move to India next February. The company's involvement ensures an elite field, such as Ernie Els, Colin Montgomerie and Thomas Bjorn, will line up at the New Delhi Golf Club for the inaugural Indian Masters.
But here the Tour's globalisation plans have hit controversy. India has become a magnet for major sports events. Over the next three years the country will stage the Commonwealth Games and its first Formula One grand prix. The reason for its popularity is a booming economy, which comes without the political and ethical problems associated with China: human rights activists and environmental lobbyists are horrified by the prospect of the Beijing Olympics.
In contrast, India is the world's biggest democracy. It has a population that is increasingly affluent and very young. Nearly half the people in India are under 20. This makes them a prime target for the European Tour's sponsors. However, when the Indian Masters, the richest single sports event to be held in the country, was announced, it was met with bitter recriminations from the chairman of the Asian Tour. The event is a departure from normal protocol, which is to co-sanction tournaments with the local authorities, in this case the Asian Tour and the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI).
Asian Tour chairman Kyi Hla Han called the move "unethical" and "intrusive", and he was backed by several top Indian players. "Make us part of the bandwagon," said reigning Indian Open champion Jyoti Randhawa.
European Tour chief executive George O'Grady defended the move: "We have been invited to host a tournament in India, we are not pushing our way through," he said.
HOWEVER, THEIndian Masters raises some questions as to the long-term effect of the European Tour's globalisation programme. What is its ultimate aim? Is it crowding out local event organisers and stifling smaller tours? Or is it providing a route through for local talent, raising the competitive bar for Asian players and increasing the size of the cake for all? The next few years will provide answers to some of these questions.
Meanwhile, the prospect of a World Tour grows, buoyed by the performances of Asian players on the PGA and European Tours.
Last year the winner of Europe's prestigious end-of-season event, the Volvo Masters, was the India's Jeev Milkha Singh. He beat Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia to the title at Valderrama. The €667,000 first prize was the most money won by an Indian sportsman in an individual event.
Other Indian players, such as Randhawa, Shiv Kapur and Arjun Atwal, are following behind. On the same day Milkha Singh won in Spain, South Korea's KJ Choi won the Chrysler Championship in Miami. Overall there are 10 Asian men in the world's top 100 golfers. In the women's game there are 35 Koreans in the top 100. "Today's sports fans are clocking up the air miles. The world is becoming a smaller place," says Schofield. "There's still enough for people to go and watch, you can drive through the night, as Paul Casey's father and mother did not so many years ago, from Surrey to Gleneagles to watch their son win his first European Tour event."
He cites the influx of people in to France for the Rugby World Cup, aided by cheap flights, a trend he sees continuing as sporting borders become ever more amorphous.
"In the last 20 years there's been a great following of the European Ryder Cup team to the United States, much more so than the reverse journey. Boxer Ricky Hatton took thousands to Las Vegas. Michael O'Leary will put on his Ryanair flights across the Atlantic for five quid and make a fortune on his all-night bar."
It's a scenario Schofield could never have imagined 25 years ago. "It would be an utter lie to suggest that those of us who took those decisions at that time were bright enough to see the tremendous proliferation that it would lead to," says Schofield. "We were simply doing as most administrators do, which is to try to fill a schedule which had many, many gaps in it."
The Tunisian Open opened the way. The rest, as they say, is geography.
