Why does the European Tour not co-manage more events in Australia?

[barrybridges]

Silly question I suppose, but the European Tour extends its reach far beyond European shores:

China
South Africa
United Arab Emirates
Qatar
India
Morocco
Malaysia
South Korea
Hong Kong

...plus many co-santioned PGA events in the US (including the majors).

I notice that this year the tour is heading to Perth in Australia for the Perth International on 18th October, but wondered - given that the tour visits the likes of China and South Africa 3 or 4 times - why more events aren't taken to Australia, particularly the East Coast?

I would have thought there's quite a few outstanding courses out that way and it's where the majority of the viewing public can be found. I wonder if the Perth International is only on the calendar because it's a relatively short hop from China and Korea where the preceeding events are, rather than there being a genuine interest to take the tour into Australasia generally?

 

[Aztecs27]

Erm, because it's so forking far away?

 

[barrybridges]

...but if you're trying to attract a global television audience? China is not much closer!

 

[pendodave]

I seem to remember that the aussies decided to align themselves with the asian tour, rather than the european one. A shame, as I saw a couple of their events on espn last year just before the president's cup, and some of the courses look magnificent.

 

[Aztecs27]

Fair point, but perhaps golf isn't as popular in Oz as it is in Asia (where seemingly, EVERYONE plays it), which doesn't make it profitable. It's worth the trip to China because of the popularity and money they'll get from it. Everyone in Australia loves Cricket and/or AFL.

 

[Ethan]

The majors are not co-sanctioned - the WGC events are - and neither are any of them 'managed' by the PGA Tour or European Tour. They are 'managed' by Augusta National, the USGA, The R&A and the PGA of America respectively.

On Aussie events, I would imagine it is something to do with the Australasian Tour being a long standing and well developed, if rather small, Tour unwilling to let the Euro Tour muscle in too much.

 

[pbrown7582]

i think its all to do with tour politics there would be a concern that the european tour or even the PGA tour would be getting to big and engulfing too many of the the other tours worldwide hence the relcutance to accept too many of there events and effectively down grade thre own tours.