Sometimes the criticism of golf’s scheduling can be a soft option. Conversation with those involved in such matters reveals all manner of complexities from television time constraints to commercial demands and, bluntly, self-interest.
Yet it seems impossible to divert from the notion that golf’s summer of 2016 has completely failed to handle the timing demands placed on it by a return to the Olympic Games. Seven years have passed since the International Olympic Committee welcomed golf, which is hardly insufficient time to avoid the undermining of tournaments as is transpiring this week in what feels like another example of golf’s uneasy Olympic alliance.
The sense that the US PGA Championship, a second major in just three weeks, is the main loser from this scene is in fact incorrect. The tournament has lost appeal and interest, of that there is no doubt, but there is a more significant victim: the Ricoh Women’s British Open.
One glance at the intermittent Ladies European Tour schedule offers insight into how difficult the women’s game – on one side of the Atlantic at least – finds maintaining sporting prominence. The hosting of a major at Woburn for its 40th anniversary, featuring the imperious world No1 Lydia Ko and a total of 144 players including one aged 15, should be cause to claim some of the spotlight. Ko, still only 19, has not finished worse than third in her past five majors. In her past five starts on the LPGA Tour, Ko’s “worst” placing is a share of fourth.
Instead, inevitably this e vent will not capture the imagination of latent or would-be golf fans and will end up viewed as an afterthought. This is not the fault of Ricoh, which is in the 10th year of its sponsorship, or IMG which does an outstanding job as tournament organiser and promoter. Rather, those in all forms of the game who allowed such a clash to prevail have sold the women’s game short. A few heads will inevitably be banged against brick walls in the coming days, regardless of how strong the Woburn storylines are.
Ross Hallett, the Women’s Open tournament director, at least won’t hide that running parallel with Baltusrol and the US PGA is far from ideal. “The championship remains in its traditional week on the schedule which is the best from a scheduling point of view on the women’s golf calendar,” he said.
“While there is a clash with the US PGA, which we would obviously choose to avoid, this hasn’t been possible due to a congested schedule with the addition of the Olympic Games. It is worth noting that it will have minimal impact on the TV broadcast this week due to the different time zones. We have strong media representation at the event and great coverage so far, albeit with a few of the regular golf writers choosing to travel to the US PGA.
“We are on for record attendance at this year’s championship based on pre -tournament ticket sales with more than 60,000 spectators anticipated. Media coverage has continued to show year on year growth in line with this being the premier championship in women’s golf.”
This is admirably upbeat sentiment but Hallett is entitled to ask questions. Breaking down precisely why this muddle has ensued owes plenty to the individual aspirations of separate golfing entities, namely the PGA of America and PGA Tour. The former should have looked to move the US PGA sufficiently away from the Open Championship but both would want to hang on to as close to traditional date as possible. This year, the proximity to the Open means the US PGA looks like doing little more than tagging on.
One caveat is required here: when it was formed, the US PGA tournament initially took place in October. Now, the PGA of America want status with regards to Ryder Cup points. The Olympics, meanwhile, will run straight into the PGA Tour’s much-valued FedEx Cup series. That is the same PGA Tour which has no commercial stake in the Ryder Cup. The same PGA Tour which values its Players Championship May date far too much to offer it as an alternative tournament window for the likes of the US PGA.
Piece all of this together and one can imagine why those behind the Women’s British Open thought they may as well carry on regardless. But in terms of assisting the profile of a sport which has more to offer than is recognised, that cannot be helpful. By the time 2020 comes around, it is to be hoped those in golf’s corridors of power – male and female – display proper joined-up thinking rather than paying lip service to the concept of making sacrifices for each other. It is golf as a whole which is toiling for status, after all.
