Teeing Off For A Bumper Summer
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday October 20, 1989
Virtually unnoticed and unremarked, the 1988-89 Australian summer golf tour got under way at precisely 7am last Thursday when, in thin sunlight, little-known Victorian pro Andrew Labrooy whipped a drive straight down the fairway of the 386-metre first hole at the Woodrising course in Devonport, Tasmania.
So began the circuit's first event, the 1989 Tasmanian Open - though golf enthusiasts could be forgiven for missing it. There was no television coverage. Prize money amounted to a modest $100,000. And of the top 50 players on the Australian Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Order of Merit, only 22 entered. "Altogether, entries were down by more than 100 on previous years," an organiser explained.
It was a peculiarly inauspicious start to what has justifiably been billed as the biggest and best summer of Australian golf ever.
PGA Tour boss Michael Duff said: "Total prize money has increased this year by more than 30 per cent to a record $8.5 million. The tour now stretches from mid-October to the end of March, with only a short break over Christmas and New Year (see chart). And this summer, Australians will be able to watch -either live or on television - most of the world's top golfers at least once.
Bookings are still being finalised, he said. But players competing this summer should include at least six of the world's current top 10 - Australia's Greg Norman, Britons Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam, Americans Curtis Strange and Mark Calcavecchia, and, probably, Jumbo Ozaki, of Japan.
They will face a tough challenge from almost all the home favourites, such as Wayne Grady, Rodger Davis, Ian Baker-Finch and new West Australian wonder, 23-year-old Craig Parry, whose European winnings alone this year total more than $500,000.
Of the real superstars, only Spaniard Seve Ballesteros has refused to come to Australia at all, reportedly turning down more than $100,000 appearance money to play in the $1 million Johnny Walker Classic, Australia's richest event.
Suddenly, it seems, Australian golf has become big business. "Already, our tour is bigger than those in Europe and the United States on a cash per capita basis," said David Inglis, creator of the Classic. And he confidently predicts that it is set to become bigger still as he and rival promoters plunge into a worldwide scramble to attract television backers, corporate sponsors and -most important and expensive of all - top golfers to play in their tournaments.
Forget basketball. Forget VFL. Australia's boom sport of the 1990s will be golf, insisted Duff. "It's built up this tremendous momentum," he said from his Hornsby office. "And all the indicators point to its continued growth."
* Look at the television ratings, he said. Top domestic and international events are now attracting audiences in the mid-20s, high enough for three channels, Seven, Ten and the ABC, to buy into this summer's circuit. "Televising an event over 150 acres doesn't come cheap but it still represents good value," Inglis said.
* Look at the growing number of players, limited only by the chronic shortage of metropolitan courses. More than 500,000 men and women are registered members of clubs; probably as many again play social golf. And as more new courses are built - up to 30 are now planned for the Gold Coast alone- more will start playing and paying.
* Look at the sales of golf gear. According to one leading manufacturer, sales of golf clubs and bags in Australia are now worth about $65 million, with golf balls accounting, incredibly, for a further $30 million.
"Every Monday morning after televised golf - and especially if there's been a big Australian win - we see a big jump in sales," said one suburban golf retailer.
These developments are parallelled, said Duff, by a surge of interest in golf from corporate sponsors. As one promoter explained: "What appeals to sceptical businessmen is that the game has a good, clean, up-market image. Often they play it and their customers play it. It's mercifully free of the superbrat syndrome that seems to have infected other sports."
David Goss, marketing director of United Distillers, makers of Johnny Walker, said golf sponsorship has other attractions. So much so that he has committed an estimated $5 million to the Classic over the next five years.
"It's high profile. It offers international television coverage. It appeals to our target market and provides an opportunity to offer hospitality to clients. And the event - Australia's most prestigious - is appropriate to our brand image and leadership. It works for us."
It's not just Australian marketing men who think so. In recent years, Australian golf prizes have been pumped up by a huge injection of cash from Japanese companies, who are also investing heavily in new resort courses, such as Palm Meadows, near Surfers Paradise.
"They are building most of the courses now under construction," said Duff. "They have bought a few courses (including Riverside Oaks, at Cattai, and East Hills, in Sydney's west) and they probably account for about half the tour sponsorship prize money now."
January's three big events - the Daikyo Palm Meadows Cup and the Coca-Cola and Vines Classics - each has Japanese backing and has been slotted into the Tour program at the optimum time for the Japanese market. This multi-billion dollar plunge complements their golf resort developments in Australia, but is also aimed at exploiting the insatiable demand for televised golf back home, especially during the northern hemisphere winter.
"Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a 30-second commercial in Tokyo, it is more cost-effective to attach your name to an Australian tournament being screened back home," said Duff. The result is more than $4 million of Japanese prize money.
So far, so good. But there are still some deep traps and long roughs awaiting today's super-optimistic golf organisers.
In the short-term, there is the pilots' dispute - blamed in part for the poor turn-out at the Tasmanian Open - and fear of economic recession that is already tightening sponsors' and TV producers' purse strings. Both factors probably combined to prompt the cancellation this week of the Mirage golf Test series between Australia and Britain.
"We had to move hundreds of people to Port Douglas (in north Queensland)and the television logistics made it impossible," explained Bart Collins of promoter IMG (International Management Group). In wealthier times, perhaps, it might have been attempted, but Channel 7 and the Mirage Resorts, both owned by Christopher Skase's Qintex group, are forced now to be more frugal.
This short-term squeeze has added pressure to organisers and promoters now grappling with the longer-term problems of finding the resources - cash, courses and competitors - needed to sustain a much-expanded Australasian circuit (it includes two New Zealand events). Already, this has caused what David Inglis politely calls "ahem, vigorous competition".
That's a euphemism for a series of running battles that have criss-crossed Australian golf in recent months:
* The PGA Tour, the players' organisation and the Australian Golf Union -the sport's traditional governing body whose members own the major non-resort courses - have clashed over the scheduling and staging of events. "They are co-operating now; but you would have to say that it is an uneasy peace,"explained one insider.
* Professionals have been divided over the alleged benefits of the increased Japanese influence in the game. Many, such as Terry Gale and Graham Marsh -both active in promoting the game in Japan - have welcomed it; but earlier this year Don Johnston resigned as PGA Tour director, saying he was disturbed by the association "selling out to the Japanese". Others argue that the need to accommodate Japanese golfers in tournaments has squeezed out younger Australian players.
* Promoters are engaged in a fierce struggle for a share of the golf market. The four main participants are Mark McCormack's IMG, Tokyo-based DSE (Dunlop Sports Enterprise), a relative newcomer to the scene, Melbourne-based David Inglis and Tuohy Allen in Adelaide. With the PGA Tour, which last week appointed an advertising agency to raise its public profile, also making its own marketing drive, that competition can only intensify.
Where it can quickly lead is seen most dramatically in the recent, unprecedented scramble to attract to Australia the world's top players, who form the base of what one marketing man last week called the "golden triangle of competition, television and sponsorship".
As one golf expert, who has followed the growth of the sport for more than 25 years, explained, they do not come easily - or cheaply.
"Because of where it is, Australia is ideally placed to stage a tour that runs during the northern hemisphere winter," he said. "But at either end of the tour it still faces competition for good players from the rich American, European and even Japanese tours. Hence, the cluster of less lucrative tournaments in October and March.
"On top of that, some players, especially those who don't have to slog to earn a living, would really prefer to rest or be with their families when the northern tours close down. They can pick and choose.
"Even many of the up-and-coming Australians - such as Craig Parry - can probably afford not to play here, but do so out of loyalty and a feeling of obligation." (Clearly, most had commitments which clashed with the Tasmanian Open).
The expert, who did not wish to be named, added: "I'd guess that the telephone lines between Australian promoters and players and their agents in Europe and America would be running hot right now."
Quite true, said David Inglis, who is still gazing for stars to compete in the Johnny Walker Classic. He admitted that here he was probably at a disadvantage to IMG, with which he clashed in a well-publicised legal dispute over tournament rights. IMG not only manages or controls many of Australia's tournaments, but also has a supply of big-name players under contract. They include Isao Aoki, Rodger Davis, Sandy Lyle, Curtis Strange, Ian Woosnam and -still the biggest name of them all - world No1 Greg Norman, whom Duff credits with lighting the true-blue touchpaper that set off the golf explosion downunder.
"The minimum any top player will want is two first-class return air fares, five-star accommodation and transport in Australia," said Inglis. "Then we start talking appearance numbers."
With Norman, the numbers are very big indeed. As Wayne Grady (see above)says, other Australian players have emerged in 1989 as major forces on the overseas circuits. One glorious weekend last June, Australia awoke to find that, overnight, compatriots had scored wins on three continents: Parry in Europe, Grady in the United States and Marsh in Japan. Apart from big-winning Parry, Mike Harwood has won $275,000 in Europe, Peter Senior $252,000, Brett Ogle $200,000 and Peter Fowler $194,000.
Several have now plunged into the depressed British property market to buy homes from which to plan their 1990 European campaign. "It's a great feeling to have your own home away from home," explained Senior recently.
But Norman is still the player people - and sponsors - want to see. He remains so popular that earlier this month he was forced to issue a statement threatening legal action against any promoter who misled the media, public or sponsors by wrongly implying that he might be playing in a tournament. Though he remains dedicated to Australian golf, he carries an especially high price in today's sellers' market.
Bob Tuohy, whose South Australian Open has been boosted by the sudden entry of players freed when the much more lucrative Port Douglas Test series was cancelled, admitted that Norman is simply unobtainable. He said: "We can't afford him."
Inglis has decided he can afford him for the Johnny Walker Classic and the television shoot-out that accompanies it. He won't say how much Norman will be paid. And IMG, the golfer's agent, refuses to discuss reports that it is as much as $200,000. "Both parties agreed Norman's fee would not be made public,"said IMG's Bart Collins.
However, you can be sure that in less than five days, The Great White Shark will earn the sort of money that young professional Andrew Labrooy, battling away down in Devonport, can still only dream about.
THE SUMMER CIRCUIT
Date Event Venue Prizemoney Greg TV
Norman? coverage
Oct 19-22 Tasmanian Open Devonport $100,000 NO -
Oct 26-29 Air NZ/Shell Open Titirangi,
Auckland NZ$200,000 NO -
Nov 2-5 AMP NZ Open
Paraparaumu
Beach
Wellington NZ$150,000 NO -
Nov 9-12 Australian PGA
Riverside
Oaks $500,000+ NO 10
Nov 16-19 Ford NSW Open The Lakes $300,000 NO 7
Nov 23-26 West End SA Classic
Royal
Adelaide $150,000 NO -
Nov 30-Dec 3 Australian Open
Kingston
Heath $500,000 YES 7
Dec 7-10 Johnny Walker Golf Classic
Royal Melb $1 million YES 10
Dec 14-17 Queensland Open
Royal
Queensland $300,000 NO 7
Jan 11-14 Daikyo Palm Meadows Cup
Palm
Meadows $800,000 YES 10
Jan 18-21 Coca-Cola Golf Classic
Royal Melb $700,000 NO ABC
Jan 25-28 Vines Classic
The Vines,
Perth $700,000 NO ABC
Feb 1-4 Victorian Open Woodlands $300,000 NO -
Feb 8-11 Australian Matchplay
Kingston
Heath $200,000 NO -
Feb 10-11 Superskins Mirage Port
Douglas $675,000 YES 7
Feb 15-18 Australian Masters
Huntingdale
$450,000+ YES 7
Feb 22-25 Tournament Players Champs
(vtbd) $500,000+ NO -
March 1-4 PGA Tour (vtbd) $500,000 NO -
March 8-11 WA Open (vtbd) $150,000 NO -
March 9-11 Sara Lee Masters The Lakes $300,000 NO ABC
March 15-18 Joondalup PGA Classic
Joondalup, WA
$150,000 NO -
March 22-25 Nedlands Masters Nedlands,WA
$150,000 NO -
* (vtbd) = venue to be decided
© 1989 Sydney Morning Herald
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