When Jiyai Shin holed out from the scrub subsequent to the fourth fairway for eagle en path to her Australian Open romp, you needed to be there to see it.
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The sensational shot wasn’t a “you needed to see it to consider it second”, you actually needed to be on target, and on the fourth gap, as a result of the leaders teed off two hours earlier than any TV broadcast of the nationwide Open started.
It was one other situation for the twin gender occasion which stays in limbo as gamers wrestle with the timing, the course set-up and the lingering angst about such revered titles being performed as a one-two punch for purely financial causes.
Golf Australia boss James Sutherland, who has hung out this week speaking with “many gamers and their representatives” conceded as a lot, with no capability to find out what the occasion appears like going ahead.
However he stated the easy concept the tournaments might be “cut up up” and run as particular person occasions, defied financial logic.
“It’s no secret that a few of our main males’s gamers don’t just like the format, however they just like the date. And on the flip aspect, a few of our main feminine gamers don’t just like the date, however just like the format,” he stated on Sunday.
“And so the easy reply to that’s to separate the 2 occasions at completely different occasions … however it’s not fairly that straightforward.
“Within the chilly, onerous mild of day, we have to contemplate what we do in the perfect curiosity of Australian golf and make good selections round that.
“There’s an entire lot of very, crucial stakeholders that carry this occasion collectively and make it economically viable and financially sustainable, but additionally sustainable when it comes to getting the outcomes we wish that have to be consulted and work with alongside the way in which.”
Cam Smith, clearly the largest identify in Australian golf going by the hordes who obtained as much as observe him from 7am on Sunday, and had been available for a surprising closing gap birdie, can’t decide to subsequent 12 months’s occasion, no matter it might appear to be, for household causes at this stage.
However having made clear his ideas that the set-up catered an excessive amount of to the feminine occasion, ideas echoed by his LIV teammates Lucas Herbert and Marc Leishman, and with the phrases of Adam Scott that the Australian Open is “not the place” to experiment with two tournaments on the similar time, ringing like alarm bells, large selections loom.
Match organisers are in control of the TV manufacturing, paid collectively by Golf Australia and the DP World Tour, which co-sanctions the occasion however can solely afford a five-hour broadcast, which meant a 1pm Sunday begin.
“I’d like to dwell in an ideal world. Sadly, golf doesn’t exist in an ideal world,” Sutherland stated.
“Golf might be the toughest sport on the planet to broadcast. We get that it’s in all probability the costliest sport on the planet to broadcast, and should you don’t get vital revenues as rights charges, and also you earn the suitable for that, since you earn the suitable with eyeballs, that it’s very onerous to reciprocate that with funding.”
Sutherland stated “extra individuals than ever” are enjoying golf, and the on-course crowds had been good, as they had been in Sydney final 12 months, regardless of the absence of any true worldwide heavyweight names, in both the boys’s or girls’s occasion, and Scott, along with his non-attendance changing into extra of an announcement than a fatigue situation in mild of his feedback.
Each he and Smith have made their positions on what the occasion ought to appear to be going ahead clear. Match officers, nevertheless, haven’t.
There are lots of conversations being had, lots of questions being requested, however not lots of solutions out there because the Australian Open fights for its survival.