PGA Tour's Far Eastern Forays Are Far from Fair - Part 2

The US-based circuit is now expanding into Korea, Japan and even global domination on the cards with the minimal resistance offered and it’s bad for golf in the Far East

KJ Choi

Meanwhile, with tensions reaching fever-pitch in the Korean Peninsula with a war of words between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, with both men threatening military action, the PGA Tour also declined to say whether diplomatic advice had been sought before confirming its first-ever Tournament in South Korea.

PGA Tour golf is an acquired taste, and this correspondent is yet - and unlikely ever - to acquire it: homogenous players on lookalike courses, obstinately grudging grunting vapid insights into their latest round, statistics galore, strong allegiances to particular players based on state and/or college affiliations and on a purely practical basis. As the CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES is reaching its denouement in South Korea, it will be breakfast time in New York and the middle of the night in California, hardly making for prime-time TV.

But the harsh reality of the situation is that the CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES is in the open capitalist market that America pays homage. There is no more worth US$9.25m than the CIMB Classic is worth US$7m, meaning sponsors, media outlets and ultimately local and regional Tours and their players will get burned, and golf in the region will be the loser.

Until then, the PGA Tour is, in fact, starting covertly to begin with an additional sub-circuit, below the big-bucks WGC, ‘Majors,’ FedEx Finals and Players Championship tier. Just beneath the 20-plus domestic events offering more than over US$6m prize funds, but well above both the Web.com Tour and the sprinkling of ‘Miserly’ events like the US$3.5m Barracuda Championship and the US$3m Puerto Rico Open.

But anyone who has ever tried to cut a tempting, tasty gateau into too many thin slices, it begins to crumble, then there’s not enough cake to go round.

The PGA Tour is selling the game of golf in Asia short, the Asian and KPGA Korean Tours have been sold down the river, CJ and the Jeju Government have been sold the proverbial pup, but could the insatiable, self-interested juggernaut that is the PGA Tour care less?

Not for a single nanosecond, because of its stock-in-trade, a microcosm of the free market capitalist economy the USA pays homage to, is to sell its soul to the highest bidder, seize the spoils and ignore the good of the game.

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Written by Mike Wilson

Photography by AFP

Click here to see the published article.

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