There are two truths about the PGA Tour that I think we all need to know; it is the best place to make money in golf (besides betting against drunks in Vegas), and it is the loneliest golf tour in the world. Unlike the LPGA or Nationwide or Canadian, nobody here travels together, or bunks up together, and you aren't close to home at all and, to be honest, it probably sucks at times.
But, you trade all that for the chance to win millions and be relevant unlike anything else in golf. Rory McIlroy, the 21-year-old stud from Northern Ireland, is already mega-famous, and doesn't really need the money, so he is going to do what's comfortable. Rory has decided he's sticking to the European Tour over the PGA, continuing the trend that a lot of Europeans have made this season.
Via Sean O'Shea ...
"I switched on the Golf Channel one morning when I was in the States and began watching the Omega European Masters in Switzerland and thinking to myself I would rather be there instead.
"Sometimes you feel as though you have to be in America just to play the mandatory 15 (tournaments) and at the start of this year that was something I really wanted to do. I did that but I also realized it wasn’t for me but then it doesn’t mean to say that I don’t want to play full time in the States again.
... "Holly (Sweeney – girlfriend) also has another two years at Uni’ and we have two dogs, a nice house and I love my life back in Ireland, back in Europe and I don’t want ever to give that up."
I mean, it makes total sense. People, for the most part, like to be close to home, and while it would be easy for Rory to buy a house or six all over the United States, it isn't home. He has a life that he doesn't have to give up anymore to be successful, and while it sucks for us PGA Tour fans, you can't fault the guy for it.
Also, this brings up something far greater and worrisome for Tim Finchem and the PGA Tour coats. Non-Americans don't need this tour that much anymore, and that is where a lot of the top talent is these days.
Face it, when you're making so much money you can't keep up with it, and you're an independent contractor that can make your own schedule, eventually you're going to do what YOU want to do, not what the trend has been for decades and decades.
David Cannon, Getty Images
4 comments:
Great read, Shane. No, you can't fault Rory. It would be all too easy for him to do a Poulter: set up shop in the USA and end up looking like an absolute pleb in the process...
The quality of golf and talent on the PGA Tour is not in question. But the European Tour is much more friendly and the variety of courses on offer are all so drastically different. Culturally it has to be a lot more interesting too. I really believe we are seeing another transfer of golf power to Europe just like we did from the late-eighties to mid-nineties.
Let's not forget the recent massive devaluation of the US$ against the Euro. And the fact that a lot of tournaments are about to run out of contract. Finchem is around town begging like a 2$ tramp.
Finchem screwed up. He should have listened to Greg Norman all those years ago, and the US Tour would own the game on a global basis. But instead he was insular and grabbed all the WGC events for American soil.
You reap what you sow....
Rory sets the trends. He's been drinking caffe lattes since the fifth grade and he's never looked back.
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