Since Greg Norman announced his plans for a World Tour in 1994 Tim Finchem has waged a campaign to make the PGA Tour the dominant tour in golf, creating the International Federation of PGA Tours in 1996 and the World Golf Championships in 1999. Then in 2007 he launched the FedEx Cup and in 2010 the PGA Tour co-sanctioned the CIMB Classic with the Asian Tour, and elevated the HSBC Champions to WGC status, enhancing the Tour's Asian presence. Last week there were rumours published in UK newspapers that the PGA Tour was attempting to buy the European Tour, the reports were swiftly discredited by the European Tour. "The notion that the US PGA Tour is somehow bidding to buy the European Tour is incorrect" said Keith Waters, chief operating officer of the tour. A takeover of the European Tour would enable the PGA Tour to create events in every market of the world and take a share in the Ryder Cup, giving them total dominance in the governance of the worldwide professional game.
And now tonight there are rumours that the PGA Tour is about to announce a new event in 2014 in Ireland, as reported by Golf Central Daily:
GolfCentralDaily has learned today from trusted industry insiders that negotiations are at an advanced stage between a top Irish links, Irish government officials and the PGA Tour regarding staging a regular season PGA Tour event in Summer 2014.
A Donegal links located on the Inishowen peninsula of Ireland’s Northwest coast, and boasts two championship courses, is believed to have been approached by the PGA Tour after a delegation including commissioner Tim Finchem visited the course last month as part of Tourism Ireland’s “The Gathering” initiative. PGA Tour officials provisionally penciled in a date in June 2014 in the run up to the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.
It is believed the proposed event with a projected prize pot of $8 million has already received the full commitment of top players Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy, who participated in an Oakley photoshoot at the proposed venue back in 2011. A multi billion dollar American software company, with its headquarters in Dublin Ireland, are rumoured to be the title sponsor.
The move comes only a week after speculation regarding the PGA Tour possibly taking over the running of The European Tour. It is believed a delegation from the PGA Tour also met with and received the backing of top Irish ranking Irish government officials including the Minister for Sport who, frustrated at the European Tour’s failure to find a title sponsor for the Irish Open in recent years, cleared the way legally for the event.
As yet the European Tour have not commented on the development which would prospectively see Ireland become the first European country to host events on both tours within a month- a testament to the success of Irish golfers on both sides of The Atlantic.
Tourism Ireland however have welcomed the initiative in a statement describing it as “a huge marketing opportunity for Ireland in the US Golf Market which is so important to the Irish Economy.”
A formal announcement is due in the coming days.
Such an event would almost certainly spell the end of the Irish Open, at least for 2014 and maybe in the future. It would suck up every spare penny of sponsorship and would render the Irish Open a second-class event, with the world's best players and indeed Ireland's best players unlikely to play two tour events in the country within a month.
The other major headache is surely the scheduling for both tours in the lead-up to The Open Championship, and with the European Tour having the role of governing tour golf in Europe it surely will threaten its role if such an event is allowed to go ahead. One of my sources exclusively revealed to me this evening that the host course is Ballyliffin, a magnificent links with two courses - the Glashedy and Old, the latter of which was re-designed by Sir Nick Faldo in 2006. The club has the room to stage a major event and it really surprises me that the European Tour are not suggesting a series of co-sanctioned tournaments between the PGA Tour and the European Tour in the lead-up to The Open Championship, one of which could be the Irish Open. The championship could fulfil its potential while staying under the control of its host tour.
If the proposed event is to take place it is surely the beginning of the slippery slope towards Finchem replacing O'Grady and the European Tour becoming a tour of the same level of the PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour Latinoamerica, as a feeder tour for the Web.com Tour below the main PGA Tour. The Ryder Cup would then become the United States versus the Rest of the World and Ponte Vedra Beach the new home of golf. Make no mistake in the long term interests of the game the PGA Tour should be kept out of Ireland and kept out of Europe.
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