KEY POINTS:
The most extraordinary sideshow leading into the Australian Open revolved around the possibility of Tiger Woods being enticed to play next year.
The idea was floated by Golf Australia's recently installed chief executive, Stephen Pitt. He claims his organisation's flagship event would be "a natural place" for Tiger to play because the Australian Open has in the past been won by Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer.
One must admire such ambition but you'd think a tournament which until July had no sponsor might set more modest targets. The largesse of the New South Wales state government has now guaranteed the Open's viability till 2015 and that sudden, not inconsiderable, infusion of taxpayers' funds seems to have inspired the CEO to think of splashing out.
When Tiger came to New Zealand in 2002, his appearance fee was US$2m. Since then he's won eight more major championships and, with a bit of inflation, his fee is now around US$4m.
With the total Open purse at AU$1.5m this year and not likely to rise substantially in the near future, I can't see the value in paying twice that amount just to ensure one guy turns up, even if he is Tiger. What's more, it appears the main source of funds to get Tiger to play in Australia next year - the Australian Masters is talking about him too - are state governments.
The golf sponsorship well in Australia is pretty dry and two of the three events in the early summer "Triple Crown" of the Masters, PGA and Open have only been saved by taxpayers. Just what those taxpayers think of spending millions of their dollars on a sporting superstar's appearance fee is unknown.
But as someone who's pretty peeved at having some of his rates squandered on the Auckland Regional Council's David Beckham fiasco, I'd imagine the non-golfers of Victoria and New South Wales wouldn't be too chuffed at contributing to the Tiger Woods empire. Four million bucks could seal a few roads.
The question of whether appearance money is either fair or worthwhile has always been one of golf's most vexed questions. Apart from the Tiger year at Paraparaumu, my understanding is that little or no cash has ever been paid for appearances here.
Back in those wonderfully innocent times of the '70s, '80s and even into the '90s, major championship winners like David Graham, Bill Rogers, Hale Irwin and Nick Price played here if the sponsor arranged a few free (first class) airfares for them and their friends, then a few nights at Huka Lodge afterwards. The rising stars of that era like Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer came for even less.
But having broadcast many of the old Air New Zealand/Shell Opens at Titirangi, I often wondered about how valuable some of these guys actually were. For me, the opportunity to see our best New Zealand players like Bob Charles, Simon Owen and John Lister, then later Frank Nobilo and Greg Turner, in the flesh for the only time during the year was just as enjoyable.
The appearance of genuine stars, especially recent major championship winners, does provide a real boost, especially in pre-tournament publicity. But Australia has so many world-class players anyway, and more emerging every year, that you wonder about spending so much on Tiger.
If I was running events in Australia, I'd concentrate more on building up and securing the purses for the events they've got, and ensuring the local stars play. Make sure the appropriate arrangements were in place for Geoff Ogilvy, Adam Scott, Aaron Baddeley, Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby and others before trying to net the bigger, and more expensive, fish.
