BUNKER-TO-BUNKER….Inside Golf writers have their say!
By Michael Court
IT pains me to say this, but I don’t think the change to the Australian Open worked. And I asked a few members at my club their view and most of them didn’t like it.
Granted, I watched the final round right through despite the fact Adam Scott was struggling to stay with the eventual winner Adrian Meronk. Yet every time I began to get interested, the viewer was whisked away to watch either the women or the All Abilities players.
Look, I’m happy to watch them, but not while I am trying to focus on the men’s event. It’s great to try something different and I’m sure the idea of playing the early rounds on different courses has some merit.
It does seem to work at the Dunhill Championship in Scotland where the players and celebs play iconic courses St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. Certainly, Victoria and Kingston Heath are also worthy of that status. But as a Sydneysider I’m unfamiliar with them and, with the sound turned down low, I wasn’t sure where they were on occasions.
Surely, events like the men’s and women’s Australian Opens have enough prestige to be able to run on their own? There was a time when the Australasian Tour had a dozen or so events before the PGA Tour prize money increased dramatically and the Americans decided they didn’t need to play events Down Under.
Slowly, the Aussie events disappeared from our radar or became ‘second string’ events for much less prize money. Let’s hope that’s not where the Australian Open is heading too!
What do you think? Email comments to david@insidegolf.com.au
By Peter Owen
AT the risk of sounding a bit of a redneck, I’m finding it difficult to feel the love for all this inclusivity in sport. I can’t, for instance, get particularly interested watching women play rugby league, or Aussie rules, or throw punches at each other in a boxing ring.
But I’ll happily watch a good game of netball and, to tell the truth, I’d just as soon watch a women’s golf tournament as a men’s event. I’m also a fan of women competing directly with men in club golf competitions, and of male and female golfers competing in some tournaments.
I wonder, though, whether it serves women – or anyone else – any real benefit in sharing the stage with men in a national competition like the Australian Open. And, with the greatest respect and admiration for the handful of disabled golfers who competed in Melbourne, I cannot understand their presence at a national championship.
And if part of the strategy is to attract increased crowds, how is that served by having to cut the field to 30 men and women on the final day when it means box office stars like Cameron Smith, Ryan Fox and Cameron Davis are not allowed to play?
To my mind, the Australian Open and the Women’s Australian Open are significant enough events to warrant their own space – to be separate and to command a focus of their own. As politically correct as it may appear, running them together serves only to lessen the appeal of each championship and, in the end, to diminish the sport.
What do you think? Email comments to david@insidegolf.com.au
By Michael Davis
I MUST say as a biased Victorian I would love to see the Australian Open remain in Melbourne in the same format and at the same two courses for as long as possible.
And I think seizing the date in the first week of December was a master stroke. Putting the event on at the same time every year would also give fans a sense of certainty around Australia’s marquee tournament. It just warmed every golf fan’s heart in Melbourne to have the Open back after seemingly being played in Sydney for an eternity.
Playing the men’s, women’s and All Abilities championships side by side was also an inspired move by golf officials. And then to be able to utilise two famous sandbelt courses in Kingston Heath and Victoria was the icing on the cake.
The event had its teething problems, already publicly acknowledged by Golf Australia boss James Sutherland. Chief among them seems to have been the contentious double cut which saw fields on the final day reduced to 30 players in the men’s and women’s tournaments.
Rest assured that won’t happen again at this year’s staging of the event. But overall it was a damn fine rebirth of the championship which has struggled to stay relevant as other sports – notably tennis and cricket – surged past golf in popularity.
To retain the momentum Sutherland and cohorts worked hard to create the 2022 championships and it probably needs to move around. Already it is slated for Sydney’s The Australian GC in 2023. But the search continues for another suitable venue.
What do you think? Email comments to david@insidegolf.com.au
By Larry Canning
I THINK it’s more a question of ‘how can the Australian Open survive’. If it’s a case of government funding and that’s the only thing keeping this historic championship alive then it’s a case of whatever it takes.
When Golf Australia CEO James Sutherland referred to the 2022 Open as being “resoundingly positive”, he was suggesting the people who arranged the sponsorship cash were wrapped and that appears to be the “bottom line”.
The time of year is clearly bad for the Women’s Australian Open given the long-time co-sanctioning from the US LPGA isn’t on the table anymore. We used to link up with the LPGA’s Asian swing in February meaning we had a world-class field every year but December knocks that on the head.
The men’s co-sanctioning gig was a little quirky as well with two events being played concurrently in South Africa. But it did allow some of Australia’s best players from other tours to compete. The venue will be determined by all of the above and obviously we will need two world-class courses in a capital city, very close to each other.
I don’t know what poor James Sutherland went through with Cricket Australia dealing with the fallout from the rules scandal, but given the criticism the 2022 Open has copped from the traditionalists it looks like he’s gone from the frying pan and into the fire.
We all want the Australian Open to survive, right? Let’s just embrace whatever and wherever it takes us.
What do you think? Email comments to david@insidegolf.com.au
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