Australian Open week kicked off on Monday with a 30-second piece of artwork to ship shivers down each golf fan’s backbone.
The setting solar shimmers over Royal Melbourne’s breathtaking undulations. The fairways are pristine. The bunkering is beautiful. The pictures merely iconic.
All this whereas a band performs a dramatic cowl of Bitter Candy Symphony, with drums pounding and violins stirring.
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Suppose US Open TV previews at Shinnecock Hills and Oakmont, and even the Masters at Augusta Nationwide.
This occasion merely has main written throughout it, too.
***
Besides, it doesn’t. By no means has. Not actually anyway.
The truth of the Australian Open is that, for the higher a part of half a century, it has been drastically underappreciated by golf’s US elite.
The Australian Open’s heyday noticed legends from dwelling and overseas desirous to duke it out on these shores for the Stonehaven Cup.
Engraved on the coveted silverware are the names of worldwide {golfing} royalty in Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Participant, Tom Watson, and Australian heroes Peter Thomson and Greg Norman.
In 1971, Nicklaus walked off the 18th inexperienced at Royal Hobart with a 3rd Australian Open received and — in complete admiration for the occasion — topped it because the world’s ‘fifth main’.
With fields as sturdy as they had been, and the programs among the many world’s greatest, it’s little marvel it was so extremely revered.
However at present, lip service on how nice Australian programs are, and the way good the nation is, is about all we’ve got come to count on from the world’s prime gamers not from Down Below.
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As for placing their cash the place their mouth is with an precise look?
Coming again for the Australian Open has lengthy been a bridge that’s, fairly actually, too far.
Nicklaus, Participant and Palmer’s involvement was largely tied to an endorsement take care of Dunlop and Slazenger, which held a big portion of the golf gear market in Australia.
When that association ended, it was left to Norman to headline the occasion within the mid-to-late 80s and into the 90s. That pattern of Australians being compelled to prepared the ground has continued since, with it changing into much less and fewer interesting for worldwide stars to make the journey, however the motivation of a big, government-backed cheque.
Final 12 months marked one thing near a brand new low for the nationwide Open, which badly suffered from its ill-fated experiment of concurrently internet hosting the lads’s and ladies’s occasions on one course.
LIV ace Joaquin Niemann was the one high-profile worldwide participant on the mens aspect of the match, whereas not even Adam Scott — soured by the convoluted format — may abdomen the journey again.
The Australian Open was undoubtedly wounded, however by no means misplaced its pulse.
Organisers listened to the overwhelming unfavorable suggestions, notably from gamers, and have acted in emphatic trend.
Huge names? The chequebook was thrown at securing Rory McIlroy, golf’s largest drawcard since prime Tiger Woods. The megastar tees it up alongside a returning Scott, different Australian drawcards like Cameron Smith and Min Woo Lee, plus the likes of world No.54 Si Woo Kim add to a better worldwide really feel.
A becoming venue? Royal Melbourne, thought of by some as the best golf course on the earth, is again to host the Australian Open for the primary time since 1991.
The subsequent one? Kingston Heath, which McIlroy says is even higher.
In the meantime, each the mens and womens occasions have reverted to the stand-alone tournaments they each deserve.
And there are some severe stakes concerned with, for the primary time ever, a Masters invite on the road, plus three spots at subsequent 12 months’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
Make no mistake, this 12 months’s occasion is marks the primary significant step again in direction of the Australian Open’s glory days.
Might it ever be seen because the ‘fifth main’ once more?
“I believe it may well transfer in that course,” Adam Scott informed foxsports.com.au this week at Royal Melbourne.
“I believe there’s a thirst for worldwide golf for the time being and we’re fortunate to have a man on the prime of the sport like Rory, who’s a extremely worldwide participant and believes in that, and he’s carrying plenty of that weight on his shoulders. His help is big.
“We have now the venues to deal with it. I wouldn’t be stunned if there have been extra large names queuing as much as come subsequent 12 months after what they see this week.”
‘SHOULD BE A FIFTH MAJOR’
The times main into this 12 months’s occasion have made it clear that the Australian Open, notably one staged at Royal Melbourne, instructions respect worldwide.
PGA Tour insider Dan Rapaport thrust this 12 months’s occasion into the US golf information cycle this week when he declared the Australian Open as the sport’s “sleeping large”.
Nonetheless, he lamented that extra superstars aren’t becoming a member of McIlory within the journey to the Melbourne sandbelt.
“Among the finest golf programs on Earth. It’s a historic occasion in a tremendous golf space… and simply three of the highest 50 gamers on the earth are teeing it up,” he wrote.
“As change continues throughout excursions, the Australian Open is a sleeping large that should be elevated in world golf.”
Golf YouTube star Rick Shiels additionally spotlighted the occasion, writing: “Rory McIlroy has arrived at Royal Melbourne, one in every of few locations within the operating for greatest golf course on earth.
“Jack, Arnie, Participant, Watson, and Norman all received the Australian Open. Can Rory assist convey this historic occasion again to its deserved stature?”
So far as beginning factors go, the arrival of McIlroy at Royal Melbourne is about nearly as good because it will get.
Granted he’s being paid an undisclosed — but, absolutely, sizeable — look charge to play, however that is McIlory strolling the stroll.
The speaking got here final 12 months when McIlroy spoke in regards to the potential for the US stranglehold on world golf to be damaged up with extra worldwide occasions.
In his wide-ranging chat, he dropped a suggestion that no Australian fan has been capable of neglect.
“The Australian Open, for instance, ought to nearly be the fifth main,” he stated.
“The market down there may be enormous with potential.
“They love golf. They love sport. They’ve been starved of top-level golf. And the programs are so good.”
On Wednesday, he doubled down on his love for Australia, saying: “It appears like this nation is sort of starved of prime degree golf.
“In fact you’ve had Presidents Cup and also you’ve had plenty of good gamers nonetheless come by way of, however possibly on a constant foundation, a market like this with superb followers and the historical past that it does have most likely deserves extra of a consistency of massive gamers and massive tournaments.”
McIlroy isn’t alone in spruiking the immense potential of the Australian Open.
Each Scott and Smith on Tuesday paid credit score the place it was due, praising the choice to take heed to gamers by reverting to a stand-alone match at a revered venue.
In flip, they consider that the thrill in regards to the Australian Open is again amongst gamers.
“Everybody’s speaking in regards to the Aussie Open once more, which is what we needed,” Smith stated
“We needed it again at Royal Melbourne, and we needed it to be an occasion the place worldwide stars come down and compete and make it the occasion that it as soon as was, so I believe we’re heading in the right direction.
“It’s a match that I desperately need to win, and you then get the course vibe with it as effectively. It’d be a reasonably particular factor to win an Aussie Open round Royal Melbourne for certain.”
Scott stated that Golf Australia deserved credit score for making an attempt one thing completely different with its combined format, but in addition deserved recognition for scrapping it.
“Hopefully it is a signal of issues to return to the Aussie Open and dwelling as much as the historical past that it already has,” Scott stated.
Of the match, he added: “It most likely is extra interesting, definitely for worldwide gamers, to return right down to play.
“Clearly, Rory is on board, and he’s coming off the again of an unbelievable 12 months, in order that’s very well timed for the occasion, and coming to this venue is creating plenty of hype as effectively.
“Definitely exterior Australia, it’s been a speaking level on tour a lot of the 12 months, and also you’ll see some gamers who’ve clearly requested for invitations and are coming right down to play.”
THE US ISSUE
With McIlroy committing, the Australian Open has instantly exploded.
Normal admission tickets for the weekend are offered out, with 100,000 individuals anticipated to attend throughout all 4 days.
Event director Antonia Beggs informed Entrance Workplace Sports activities that “every little thing that was final 12 months has most likely multiplied by about 5 or 10 occasions.”
This falls consistent with the 2019 Presidents Cup during which rowdy galleries witnessed a Tiger Woods masterclass in an exhilarating 16-14 US triumph.
The Internationals might have misplaced, however followers didn’t go away Royal Melbourne that weekend feeling defeated.
Moreover, the course — 15,000 kilometres from PGA HQ in Florida — heaved and didn’t even remotely look misplaced because the centre of {the golfing} world, even when for only one week.
However this isn’t in regards to the urge for food of followers, or the standard of venue. It by no means has been.
It’s in regards to the gamers.
And in a brand new {golfing} panorama, during which the emergence of LIV Golf has exploded prize pots on both aspect of the sport’s nice US-international divide, impartial markets like Australia are left with solely a knife at a gun struggle.
There are various the explanation why a visit to Australia in December is unpalatable for a lot of the world’s greatest golfers, and most of them are business.
Between January and September yearly, each the PGA Tour and LIV Golf supply gamers wealth that will’ve went past their wildest desires once they first turned professional.
Including in a visit to the opposite aspect of the world for a relative pittance — the Australian Open prize pot is A$2 million in comparison with A$30m for a PGA Tour signature occasion — is solely not wanted financially.
World No.1 Scottie Scheffler spoke for a lot of earlier this 12 months when he defined that there aren’t any arduous emotions in direction of taking part in golf exterior of the US, but it surely simply isn’t a precedence.
“I believe the best competitors we’ve got proper now within the recreation of golf is the PGA Tour and taking part in within the States,” Scheffler stated.
Adam Scott v Rory McIlroy in 2013 | 03:00
“I’m beginning a younger household, and travelling the world over to play golf can be nice, however on the finish of the day, that’s not my precedence nor my accountability.”
And truthful sufficient.
Making the Australian Open’s battle for sturdy fields even steeper is the truth that, regardless of happening in December, it nonetheless faces fierce competitors from rival occasions.
The truth is, this week has been described by Dylan Dethier of Golf.com as “the strangest week of the professional golf schedule”.
That’s as a result of conflicting with the Australian Open is Tiger Woods’ match within the Bahamas that includes Scheffler, the Hero World Problem, and South Africa’s Nedbank Golf Problem, which options Viktor Hovland and presents a prize pool price greater than 4 occasions what’s on supply in Melbourne.
“What does all of this imply?” wrote Dethier. “Principally it’s a reminder that there are extra competing pursuits than ever from throughout the globe for these guys’ time and skills.
“Certain, we’re in a PGA Tour low season lull, however there’s extra of every little thing else than ever.”
CAN THE DOMINOES FALL FOR AUSTRALIA?
So, is there a world during which the Australian Open’s resurgence can take all of it the way in which again to its place as world golf’s unofficial fifth main?
Granted, such a lofty standing nonetheless feels an age away from right here, however the quickly shifting panorama of golf and the large energy shift in direction of gamers supply a believable route that didn’t exist 4 years in the past.
Earlier than LIV Golf arrived, the PGA Tour schedule was exploding. The truth is, it didn’t even finish with a wraparound schedule pushing gamers in direction of taking part in extra golf, extra usually, in America.
Now, with gamers introduced with an alternative choice to the US circuit, there instantly exists the potential for the alternative — much less golf, for more cash, and in different places ought to gamers want.
New PGA Tour chief Brian Rolapp used his first public tackle to make an announcement that hinted in direction of fewer occasions and a simplified schedule.
US star Harris English final week hinted {that a} new schedule might not begin till greater than a month later, after the Superbowl.
“(Rolapp is) seeing the PGA Tour in a unique mild,” English stated. “Typically change is sweet.
“I get that they need all the very best gamers taking part in collectively extra usually, and the discuss of the Tour doubtlessly beginning after the Tremendous Bowl I believe is a reasonably good factor as a result of we will’t actually compete with soccer. So we’ll see the place it goes.”
Why is that this vital for the Australian Open?
A wider PGA Tour low season would, in idea, enable extra calendar house for the largest worldwide tournaments to search out their spots with out battle.
Granted doing so would require collaboration between competing organisations, however given the DP World Tour co-sanctions each the Australian Open and the Nedbank Problem, it’s not out of the realm of risk {that a} compromise is struck.
That leaves Woods’ Hero, which — being an invitational and never an official Tour occasion — doesn’t technically want to carry a inflexible place within the schedule. With Woods being a {golfing} behemoth in and of himself, ought to he fancy a brand new slot, it could be so.
McIlroy stated that because of the conflicts, all three tournaments don’t get the eye they deserve, notably the Australian Open.
Smith ‘annoyed’ forward of Aus Open | 02:33
“I believe this match, specifically, due to the historical past, due to the custom, deserves to be a stand-alone match,” he stated. “Per week by itself.
“Hopefully, sooner or later the powers at be can put collectively a schedule the place the largest and greatest tournaments on the earth, the oldest and those with essentially the most heritage might be elevated and stand on their very own.”
If the Australian Open was to search out clearer air, organisers preserve luring at the very least one famous person by way of a good-looking look charge, and pathways into the majors proceed, then different dominoes may topple.
There’s a sense that if it’s ok for McIlroy, then why not for others?
“McIlroy’s look, mixed with current developments within the golf world, makes the prospect of restoring Australia’s place in international golf really feel far more life like than it has in years,” Joseph LaMagna of well-liked podcast Fried Egg Golf wrote.
“Stories of a shrinking PGA Tour schedule, together with a current announcement by Augusta Nationwide and the R&A to reward nationwide open winners, ought to assist rebalance a sport more and more dominated by an American footprint.
“A couple of years from now, we may very effectively discover ourselves again within the acquainted place of wishing extra prime expertise would enterprise to Australia, with none sensible answer in sight for bringing that ideally suited to fruition.
“However no matter the way forward for Australian golf brings, this week marks a transparent and vital victory for the game.”
— Extra reporting Dane Heverin