golfrewind.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/golf/5382804.stm

WGC rewards European performance at Ryder Cup by making sure no events are held in Europe for two years.

This will motivate the 2008 Ryder Cup team .

Golf like politics is big business mate.
Find out the definition of international relations as described by Tom Clancy and you will know why.

I've stopped reading Clancy's books, but doesn't he end up as Prez in one book?

Id boycott the events if i were European players to be quite honest.

$$$ talks....
and yes, Ryan does end up President. I believe it is in Debt of Honor...

You are quite right.
I am a big fan of the Jack Ryan series. I liked his definition of international relations. He descriped them as one country another.

They won't because it will achieve nothing, they would prefer to win it. To get the sponsors in ,they need the Americans stars ,and some of them are allergic to travel.

Certainly not a move which is going to help future 'away' Ryder cups for the US!

I'll blame you personally for this one, all that hot air is having an effect.

The unwillingness of Americans to travel make it difficult to have top events outside the uS. The week before the Ryder Cup HSBC put up a first prize of $1.8 mil, Mickleson and DiMArco did not want to paly. In the past, sponsors have thrown money at events outside USA and USA have not turned up, the World team competition had the 11th choice USA player.

If they will not go to the money, the money goes to them, at the expense of golf fans outside USA......................

Will "American stars" be less allergic to travelling to China than to Europe?

Personally, I'd love to see these 5 events spread out - one in Europe, one in Asia, one in Australia or New Zealand, one in South Africa and one here in the USA. I enjoy seeing different courses and seeing the way fans act in different places. How do you say,"Get in da' hole" in Mandarin?

1. TV coverage is current, so we do not have to stay up all night.
2.It inspires young golfers who watch their heros.
3.It enables the tournaments the week before and after to attract better players and therefore bigger sponsorship because they tend to make the trip longer than one week
4. Local sponsors put younger players in to compete with their heros.
5.Up and coming pros ready to make the next step are playing against their betters.

So you should be , the world comes to you ,you do not need to go tot he world. Be grateful and remember that the rest of the world is not so lucky.

Promote world-wide golf, eh?

The European PGA Tour is fairly extensive in terms of geographical schedules. In the past twelve months, in addition to the locations in the USA, the European Tour players have played their competitive golf in China, South Africa, Thailand, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Australasia, Indonesia, Singapore, Madeira, Portugal, Spain, Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, France, Germany, Sweden, Holland and Russia.

I'd say that this was a serious effort by the European professionals to promote world-wide golf.....or am I missing something here?

Unfortunately, whatever other arguements you may have, the only direct contest between the tours tends to show that this statement is far too sweeping.

It is a direct contest. The US team are basically the cream of the US tour while the Euro team is the cream of the European tour.

I did not suggest the Euro tour was better because I do not believe it is true. So I will bullet this a bit to summarise what you say:

1) The US tour (collection of individuals) is much better than the Euro
2) The justification is major performances, INDIVIDUAL player performances
3) The results when a collection of the top players meet does not mean anything.

Taking (admittedly awkward) analogy, consider a house. The US house is made of premium bricks and the Euro is made of budget. Which house would you rather have?

Now, one house is a mansion, the other is a brick shed. Which do you want?

Would you change your mind simply on the basis that the shed was built with premium bricks while the mansion with budget?

So yes the US tour has better players, but you are saying that the shed is better because of its bricks. I know it isnt that extreme in reality, but you shouldnt make such sweeping statements because you are choosing to use a statistically less relevant result as your basis.