Rather like a deliberating dog circling the basket, this correspondent has never been a man of instant, decisive decision-making. Even the bold loup into engagement with my better half – a woman of remarkable patience, she once had Job asking for tips in tolerance – was so prolonged, it made the Pilgrim’s Progress look like the 100 yard dash.
We always get there in the end, of course, even if the circuitous route makes those ruddy roadworks at the Raith interchange look like a minor diversion.
In a couple of weeks, the journey will take us to Wentworth for the BMW PGA Championship. It’s the European Tour’s flagship event but these days it seems like it’s one of those under siege galleons on the high seas trying to fend off a series of crippling broadsides.
You’ve probably been aware of the on-going stooshie between the members of Wentworth – that leafy, exclusive Xanadu in the Surrey stockbroker belt where the trees are actually made out of £50 notes – and the club’s Chinese owners, who were keen to cull the membership and charge those who wanted to stay on an extra £100,000. Admittedly, a squabble between the super-rich and the super, super, super-rich is hardly going to have the common man saying ‘the poor, down-trodden souls’ but, by all accounts, the atmosphere continues to be decidedly unsavoury. Caught in the not so merry midst of it is the European Tour, which has its headquarters in the Wentworth estate.
Now, the residents are seeking a huge hike in fees paid by the Tour to hold the PGA event, from around £15,000 a year to an annual sum of £300,000. The top brass of the Tour stated at the weekend that there is “zero chance” that the showpiece will not take place as scheduled but this on-going souring of relations is another sore one for a cherished old championship. Of course, in these times when golfing leaders continually send out all-embracing, inclusive messages about the game being open to all, you could argue that a global business like the European Tour being billeted in the grounds of a property which is the reserve of the uber-elite is hardly practising what they now preach.
Back in November, Keith Pelley, the effervescent chief executive of the Tour, delivered a glowing endorsement of the circuit’s lucrative DP World Tour Championship in Dubai while stating “I don’t see it (the BMW PGA Championship) as our flagship event.”
In some ways, it was an exercise in biting the hand that feeds you. BMW has been the title backer of the PGA since 2005 and the high heid yins at the Bavarian Motor Works must have been spluttering into their Twin Power Turbo six-cylinder engines after hearing Pelley's words. The current deal with the PGA Championship expires in 2018 and, having pulled out of the Shanghai Masters while probably left cheesed off when the Tour plumped for Italy and not Germany for the 2022 Ryder Cup, the BMW group may just be tempted to engage reverse gear and back out of European golf when current deals expire.
The PGA Championship, which dates back to 1955, remains a key part of the schedule but it’s hardly enjoyed an easy ride over the years. Only last week, Rory McIlroy, the champion in 2014, confirmed that he wouldn’t be playing this year due to his hectic schedule but it’s not as if he has been the first European star to shun the Tour’s homecoming down the seasons. The contentious re-design of Wentworth’s West Course, and the state of its much-maligned greens, has continued to draw high-profile criticism year after year too while Sergio Garcia’s ‘fried chicken’ jibe about Tiger Woods on the eve of the 2013 event, and the subsequent racist rammy it stoked up, grabbed the hysterical headlines for all the wrong reasons.
They say that there’s no such thing as bad publicity but this latest palaver, involving brassed off members and eye-watering financial demands, is another pile of downbeat press cuttings to leaf through.
Pelley, who continues his quest to bolster prize funds and make the European Tour a “viable alternative” to the cash-laden PGA Tour, probably didn’t help PR matters by rubbing a major player up the wrong way with his remarks about the BMW PGA Championship not being the flagship.
In this money-soaked game, you keep your friends close … but your sponsors even closer.
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