Could this month of mouth-watering golf lure the stars to Australia?

By

It is the packaged deal with the potential to take Australian golf into a new era.

Former Web .com Tour winner-turned golf broadcaster Ewan Porter has conceptualised a solution to the isolation problem our summer of golf faces each year.

With a majority of the world’s best players using the ‘fall’ swing (late September through to December) of the US PGA Tour as an off season – and the fact the Australian Open typically falls on the week of American Thanksgiving – Australian events have often lacked the depth required to draw large crowds our national championship enjoyed when it was considered the fifth Major.

That was when Nicklaus and Player regularly travelled Down Under.

While the Australian PGA Championship is blessed with co-sanctioning from the European Tour, the Australian Open offers little benefit to US PGA Tour stars other than potential appearance fees or the off-chance they secure a start to the British Open through the qualifying series (afforded to the top three place-getters not already exempt for the Open Championship).

November is also a chance for US PGA Tour players battling for status to get a headstart on their peers in the FedEx Cup points race.

But Porter believes grouping the Australian Open, PGA Championship, (reviving the) Masters and New Zealand Open into a month-long series stretch called the ‘Australasian swing’ is the first step to luring US PGA Tour stars Down Under.

On July 10, the US PGA Tour is expected to announce the new-look 2019 schedule which should feature three FedEx Cup playoffs instead of four, bringing an earlier end to the season, as well as several other changes we already know – the Players reverting to a March date, US PGA Championship moving to May, the Canadian Open bagging the pre-US Open slot and the WGC-Bridgestone moving to Memphis, Tennessee.

But under the current schedule, Porter has slotted the Australasian swing right after the US PGA Tour finishes its October run through Asia – which includes the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, the fledgling CJ Cup in Korea (which has been locked in domestically for another nine years) and the WGC-HSBC Champions in China.

Fields would be filled by the top 50 from the US, European and Australasian tours.

Under Porter’s concept, each event would boast a $US5 million purse and award a $US1 million bonus to the leading points scorer for the four events, among other rewards for competitors.

What do you think? What tweaks does it need to be considered by the US PGA Tour?