HAYES: C & # 039; mon Tiger, cut us somewhat
Tiger Woods admits that he will have a battle with the logistics of the pre-presidents Cup.
"As long as I ride with Tiger, everything will be fine."
With that logical but discarded sentence, Dustin Johnson gave another figurative touch to the face of the Australian wave yesterday.
While Tiger Woods is on his way from the Bahamas to Australia this week for a partial promotion and reconnaissance visit before leading the US Presidents Cup team to Royal Melbourne in December 2011, he does so with one big question mark over his head from a The perspective of the Australian golf lover.
His departure from his Hero World Challenge, which he concluded with a one-over-par 73 and 17 of 18 players ended in his annual charity tournament, came with the usual swag of questions about his plans for season 2019.
One of his answers was confirmation that the event in the Bahamas next year will be in the same post-Thanksgiving slot machine – a week after the Australian PGA and a direct clash with the Australian Open in Sydney, the week before the Presidentidents Cup in Melbourne.
Multiple sources in the US wave media anticipate a Wednesday and Saturday run for the 2019 event to facilitate the logistics of the trip to Australia so that players, caddies and families arrive on time. Van Woods & # 39; entourage are expected to make formal agreements after the Down Under trip this week.
Woods, on the debut of the Captains captaincy, naturally has an interest in his squadron arriving in Victoria to take on the Ernie Els & lt; International team at the place of the only victory of the hosts, already in 1998 .
The 14-time big winner said earlier this year that he would not mind if his team members chose to play in the Australian Open instead of in the Bahamas, and only to stand up to match -fit and not a month's rest, an issue he said was the biggest problem for his team 20 years ago.
But after interviews with Associated Press senior golf correspondent Doug Ferguson in the Bahamas today, you did not need forensic training to confirm a crime that is about to be committed on Australian golf.
In all probability, the hero's invitation field will make up the bulk of the US team for the biennial presidential cup, presumably the showpiece for all golfers who are not eligible to compete in the Ryder Cup between the US and Europe in the opposite years.
Woods, a sporadic but multiple visitor to Australia, knows all too well the problems of long-haul flights; just as he is aware of the historical significance of both the Australian PGA and Open crowns to be disputed around his own tournament, which has just completed its 20th edition.
"There are so many things in the air," Woods told AP. "One of the logistical things I'm trying to figure out is to try and find where there are eight to ten men, plus four, another five … you get almost 50 people from the Bahamas to Australia in time for a practice round, opening ceremony and the event.
"We have our work ahead of us to realize all this."
Rickie Fowler, another with ties to Australia, admitted that "logistics was not great".
"A lot depends on the captain and figure out what we want to do as a team," Fowler said about Woods and his plans.
Johnson, as mentioned earlier, did not seem to have any vague thoughts about repeating his trip to the 2011 Australian Open in Sydney, instead hitching his car to the Tiger train.
That brings us back to the "crime" aspect.
The American PGA Tour, which officially does not approve Woods' event, but fortunately plonks on the official tournament schedule of the website, is the main organizer of the Presidents Cup.
Whatever it has, thanks to a major rearrangement, a number of new clear weeks with its 2018-19 schedule to finish in late August, a month ahead of previous years.
That of course raises the question: Tiger, can not you please move your tournament to another week?
No one outside the inner circle of the upper body, "needle moving" players and their managers seem to speak bluntly about such matters, instead they tire tired business lines about busy schedules and reasons why these stars can not tour outside of North America. make, and not mentioned appearance money.
As Johnson's answer shows, as weak as it is, there will probably be very few American players playing in Australia and going against the easy money of the Bahamas, safe in the knowledge that their boss will pick them up on Saturday afternoon and they will securely deposits with Royal Melbourne without fear of incidence.
That means that the American PGA Tour, which regularly talks about the enduring local legacy of events such as the Presidential Cup, apparently will not do anything to help the two remaining large-scale and historic events on Australian soil to grow
How are you, Tiger and business? What are you going to do about the potential moment of the Australian wave in the sun that is being darkened – again?
Do your money and American companies dictate your actions?
Or do you want to have a global wave consciousness and at least offer the concept that giving the two Australian events some air – and, what heaven forbids, some support – is the right thing to do for events that deserve better, historically, as nothing different.
No one in Australia can find the budget punch needed for our Open and / or PGA championships to permanently knuckle to the US PGA Tour. We accept that.
But surely, a week after the World Cup, a less-than-full-force field drew and pushed the Australian Open into the calendars of the agenda – and all since Tiger and Phil Mickelson played their own mega punches in direct opposition – we can turn a case make for some love from Woods and his keepers.
Australian tournament golf deserves that respect.