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USPGA considering playing the Major outside the USA

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Ranger5022

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So I have been seeing some reports that the USPGA is considering running its Major championship outside the USA . The earliest it can do this would be 2020 as Bethpage Black has just been agreed for 2019.

At this stage it is merely being considered....

So as a resident of the UK we have the only other golf Major championship outside of the USA it got me thinking.....

1. Golf is wanting to be a truly global sport , would it be a good thing for one of the three Majors held in the USA to be held elsewhere , to take the sport to other people giving them the chance to watch a major championship in the flesh without travelling to the USA or the UK?

2. Its the USPGA shouldnt it be held in the US?

These are just a couple of thoughts I have had , so please jump in with your thoughts.....good/bad/indifferent....this could be quite a provocative subject..
 
My guess is China would be a frontrunner. If they want to grow the game, go after the most populous nation with a rising middle and upper class.
 
These events have such history behind them, I think it would be weird (bad?) to see them move out of the U.S. I don't know if I'd rather see that or another "international" major added to the schedule. That begs the question; can you just add a major or does an event have to grow in prestige before it can be considered a major?
 
I could see someone trying to elevate a tournament like the HSBC or something to "major" status before I could see the PGA Championship moved beyond North America. The US Open wouldn't make sense outside the borders, and the Masters isn't moving, so the PGA is the only one left. I wouldn't care if they wanted to host the PGA in Canada on a one year thing, but I don't see much beyond that being beneficial to the PGA of America.
 
Wouldn't mind seeing a global PGA. We see the PGA Championships in Europe, in Australia, and in Japan. It would be nice to see them move it around.
 
Money talks. China has the cheese, Middle East has the cheese. And as Donne said, only the PGA can be mobile.
Tough part, are the US dollars, and the spenders of those dollars, going to be okay if that happens? The tourism dollars surrounding the PGA are substantial (example: 2013 PGA at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester: 200,000 spectators... generated more than $85 million in revenue). Would there be lobbying to avoid "taking our dollars away?" Or would it be more "Look what we are accomplishing for everyone around the world!"

Tough sell.

I don't give two (insert your favorite here) where they play. I love seeing the the heavy duty guys battling it out, regardless of their location. I'd like to see them play at a crappy muni with more hard pan than grass.
 
I don't like it because uspga club pros wouldn't get the nod like they currently do.


TTing
 
Thainer21 said:
I don't like it because uspga club pros wouldn't get the nod like they currently do.


TTing
Click to expand...

Good point there ...hadnt thought of that....

Maybe as others have suggested a fifth Major from a current tournament ....but as already also been said is there one prestigious enough to "grow" into a Major or is it simply going to be which country is going to generate the best revenue.....money talks...
 
Thainer21 said:
I don't like it because uspga club pros wouldn't get the nod like they currently do.
TTing
Click to expand...

I am assuming if the USPGA is putting the tourney on, they control the contestants just as they would if it was on US soil.

To be honest the PGA Championship is lacking in the prestige, maybe a change wouldnt hurt.
 
Why would it have to be one of the majors for USPGA to market a successful tournament across the waters somewhere? First, the 3 majors are only "MAJOR" by declaration and tradition. There are plenty of High Level tournaments that easily rival the PGA Championship, as far as quality of players and setting goes; pick any one of the WGC events... Bridgestone, Accenture, HSBC. I think screwing with tradition and home grown economy by moving the PGA is a bad idea.
 
I don't mind the idea of occasionally outsourcing the pga championship. The only thing is, and this is probably just my interpretation, that the pga is sort of a travelling version of the masters. They go around showcasing some of the most beautiful and challenging venues in golf. The US Open does this too, but with the Open the equation is course difficulty over aesthetics. There are a lot of major golf venues (which might be why the pga has the least prestige because there's less identity forged travelling around to all these courses compared to augusta, compared to the rota of open courses and compared to the heritage of difficulty in the us open) and widening the pool of candidates by taking it overseas only further muddies the pool.

Sure there'll be some novelty and added excitement to the first couple of times it goes overseas, but will this be something that is consistantly successful for golf and the pga locally and abroad? I think one can make a reasonable case that it will, but I don't know if it's definitive enough.

Generally speaking though, I like trying new things and I think this could be cool if done right. I might not like that it means less majors in the future for places like whistling straits or medinah, but it might be a good thing
 
I think it would be odd to see the PGA contested somewhere outside of America.
 
Not gonna happen.

They should have a global main event. Top 25 money earners from Europe, Top 50 PGA, Top 50 in the world, and have it travel the world each year. Come up with some fancy name and a big sponsor and it'd work.
 
Not a fan of the PGA championship being played outside the US, it's historical value and many years of tradition should be saved at all costs. Maybe they can have a European PGA championship for the global event.
 
I'm all for change, but there are somethings I just don't think you should try to change. The PGA has always been played in the US, no need to change that up. And slapping a 5th major into the rotation just for the sake of having another international major is also pointless. If you want to have more international tournaments, by all means I'm a fan of that. I just don't think you should mess with something that is so highly regarded as major championships.
 
I can try to get the pro's thought at my club this weekend (he's on the board of the PGA) but I don't see this moving for several reasons, most of which are noted (event includes US club pros, its the PGA of America's Championship). I'll throw in a 3rd - TV scheduling. Hard to get big revenue dollars for something that won't be shown in the US at a reasonable time. Could they try to elevate an event outside the US to major championship status - sure, but that didn't go over to well with the LPGA and we already of The Players Champ at Sawgrass which is already considered the quasi 5th major!
 
Adding a major at this point would just skew future record keeping ..which got me thinking, when was the PGA added? I'm assuming it was the last of the 4?

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GillPier said:
Adding a major at this point would just skew future record keeping ..which got me thinking, when was the PGA added? I'm assuming it was the last of the 4?

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Click to expand...

I think it was third

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I think this is a daft idea. If it moves out of the US, then straight away they effectively kill the TV audience. If they want to take big golf tournaments around the world, here's a novel idea. How about playing the WGC's around the world, like what was supposed to originally happen when they were conceived!!!!
 
As Mark_UK pointed out the WGC's were originally spread out around the world. The only problem was that a number of the big name players refused to travel to many of the events. So they moved them here to the USA. Some of the old guys here might remember that many US players stopped playing in the British Open because of the travel. I think it was Arnie that changed that. Point is these guys can play for big bucks right here. A tournament in China is not a one week commitment for them. With the travel and added expenses, would a number of guys just skip the PGA?
 
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