The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Buoyancy masks difficulties
The British Masters, won in typically native weather by the admirable Eddie Pepperell at beautiful Walton Heath at the weekend, is a microcosm of the present state of the European Tour.
On the face of it, everything is thriving.
With the Ryder Cup victory just two weeks ago – and being milked for all it’s worth already – huge crowds turned out to see the Paris heroes.
England’s premier golfer of the moment, Justin Rose, hosted the event as his contemporaries Ian Poulter, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood did over the last three years.
The new breed, led by Tommy Fleetwood but augmented by Pepperell, Matt Wallace, Jordan Smith and Tom Lewis were all over the leaderboards on one of England’s heathland treasures, still brownish from a glorious summer.
Sky Sports, in their fourth and last year as named sponsors, had all their bells and whistles out to make it a proper show on the screen and at the course.
It all looked fabulous. But amazingly, the cupboard is bare.
There’s no name sponsor to carry on the tournament beyond this year, although it seems the template of one of the top Englishmen hosting it can be continued indefinitely by their current production line of successful players.
Even after four years of this event, with a golden generation of players regenerating, sponsorship from English sources for golf remains miniscule.
It seems likely England will revert to one tour event, sponsored by German car giants BMW, for next year.
In Scotland we’re fortunate to have Aberdeen Standard Investments and SSE Hydro as long-term backers of our golf events. It’s hard to believe there are no such companies willing to be associated with golf in England.
But the buoyancy of the British Masters hiding problems may even be true of the European Tour.
There’s continuing murmurs that the Rolex Series of high-profile, high paying events has been largely propped up with the tour’s own money and, after two years, funds are starting to dwindle.
The Ryder Cup victory and success of Paris – although it seems the ordinary spectator experience wasn’t as great as it appeared – will help for a while. But as a UK-based pan-European entity, Brexit is a disaster for the European Tour.
I’m not the only one to hear talk of a merger with the PGA Tour – it would almost certainly be a takeover – once again doing the rounds, ominously.
Sponsorship from English sources for golf remains miniscule