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Is it Time to Reward European Tournament Champions?

By: Golfshake Editor | Mon 02 Jan 2017


Post by Sports Writer Derek Clements


THE European Tour doesn't kick back into action for another week, which means the players will not have been in action for over a month since teeing it up at the Hong Kong Open. Now I know there are those among you who might think that there is too much golf played around the world, and that a month off is about right, but I don't agree.

This weekend in Hawaii, the best players on the PGA Tour will be playing in the Tournament of Champions - an elite field featuring only those golfers who were good enough to pick up trophies in 2016. It is a great way to kick off a new golfing year. So here's a radical thought for Keith Pelley, the European Tour's chief executive - you have managed to secure some bumper prize funds for a few select events in 2017, and you are known as an innovator, so why not have a look at emulating the way the PGA Tour kick off the year?

Just think about it - a European Tour Champion of Champions tournament to start the ball rolling in 2018. It could be staged in South Africa (Sun City?), Dubai, Qatar or Abu Dhabi and offer a £1m cheque to the winner, thus ensuring that everybody who is eligible to play actually turns up. It may even boost the fields at several run-of-the-mill tournaments if players knew that by winning then they would qualify to play.

If such an event already existed, the field would include the likes of Matthew Fitzpatrick, Andrew 'Beef' Johnson, Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy, Chris Wood, Alex Noren, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Danny Willett, Padraig Harrington, Soomin Lee, Rickie Fowler, Thongchai Jaidee, Thomas Pieters, Joost Luiten, Francesco Molinari, Alexander Levy and Hideki Matsuyama. By anybody's standards, that is a world-class field.

Night golf, foot golf and that sort of stuff are all well and good, Mr Pelley, but what we want is proper golf. The action starts again at the South African Open with a mediocre field and a small prize pot - if that tournament followed a Champion of Champions then who knows, maybe even the South African Open would attract some big names and a larger cheque for the winner.

Many of you may think that our tournament winners are sufficiently well rewarded as it is, but this is the kind of event that gets the juices flowing, attracts big crowds and appeals to blue-chip sponsors. So how about it Mr Pelley? If you don't do it, somebody else just might.

 


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What do you think? post your thoughts and feedback on the Golfshake Forum: https://forum.golfshake.com/


Tags: Keith Pelley european tour



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