It took a dozen questions and an abundance of platitudes for a key detail of the European Tour’s Rolex Series to be revealed. Keith Pelley, the tour’s chief executive, was asked precisely where a total shortfall of about $7.7m in prize money for three 2017 events alone would come from.
“We, along with Rolex, are bringing them [each] up to $7m,” said Pelley of the purses for the BMW Championship, the Irish Open and the Scottish Open. Therefore, a much-heralded European Tour project actually looks like costing the body – who announced a 2015 loss of nearly £8m – money. With more tournaments to be added, that subsidy will grow, dependent on precisely how much Rolex are putting into this.
In short, this appears a commercial punt taken on the basis that the rebranding of certain competitions may fly. And, of course, it may, but it isn’t a fully safe strategy; the “robust marketing and promotional” plan as promised by Pelley also comes at a capital cost to someone. “All the resources for every tournament in the Rolex Series will be magnified,” Pelley said. Easy translation; more money.
“At this particular time we, along with Rolex, are bringing those tournaments to that level,” added Pelley when pressed as to whether the existing sponsors of the events in question would subsidise the shortfall towards the $7m minimum prize fund to be part of the newly-created series. For now, and pardon the pun, those already prominent competitions have actually won a watch courtesy of the Tour and a partner. Pelley refused to even confirm how long the agreement with Rolex is for, which would hardly seem a massive breach of commercial confidentiality.
Pelley remains quite the showman but close analysis of his work continues to raise queries. What this Rolex Series will actually provide, barring more money at the elite level of the Tour and enhanced media coverage which it is hoped will make golf more accessible, is a cause for debate. The gulf in resource to the PGA Tour remains vast.
One could make a decent case for the batch of events as boosted, with the French Open being certain to follow, being strong enough in any case. What is being done for the poorly attended, unattractive stuff at the lower end? Pelley has to be careful not to pander only to the players at the top of his organisation.
There is no overall narrative to knit the seven tournaments together and no combined prize at the end of them. The European Tour already has an order of merit, which it is stressed will retain key status. This, it is feared, could add confusion; the announcement of a second money list, lost in the Rolex melee, certainly should. Golf hasn’t really grasped the concept of simplicity being king.
The Rolex series has apparent flaws. The first tournament under its umbrella isn’t until May at Wentworth, with two of the European Tour’s marquee competitions earlier in any given year obviously problematic for different reasons. The Dubai Desert Classic is sponsored by another luxury watch brand, Omega. The HSBC Championship in Abu Dhabi is hugely attractive to the world’s best players partly because of appearance fees, which presumably would need to be ditched for the subsidy of a $2.7m prize fund unless the Tour and Rolex step forward once more.
The Turkish Airlines Open was ruined in part by the refusal of certain players to travel this year on security grounds. If that stance persists – and Rory McIlroy intimated on Tuesday he wouldn’t be rushing back after ill-advised comments from a leading golf administrator in Turkey – then the Rolex Series, just as with this year’s Final Series, is undermined.
Despite grand statements, Pelley is yet to prove he can sell golf to fresh markets. Rolex is a long-standing and loyal partner of the European Tour. The one tournament which has been seriously enhanced financially from 2017, the Italian Open, owes everything to government intervention linked to the claiming of the 2022 Ryder Cup. For all that contractual obligations tie Pelley’s hands to an extent, there has been no arrival of alternative sponsorship from areas where other sports – football, primarily – have profited. Golf’s profile means it should actually be an easier sell.
In maintaining a theme of bullish rhetoric, Pelley insisted the Rolex Series is “one of the most important initiatives in the Tour’s 44-year history”. It may become precisely that but, for now, thoughts of emperors and new clothes are hard to shift.
