In America you must either be very wealthy or lucky enough to find a wealthy sponsor to be awarded the same type of financial support offered by the government in Australia.
The result of this program has been clear as day—there are more talented young Australian golfers on the PGA Tour now than at any other time in the history of the tour.
Golf has indeed expanded around the world, along with the dispersion of wealth, and I believe that we are now clearly seeing the changing world dynamics mirrored within the PGA Tour.
Lets also not forget that we are about 10-20 years away from China entering the international golf community, and basic math will tell you that a country with 1.3 billion people is likely to produce more talented golfers than a country with 300 million.
Golf equipment and course design companies have already been frantically trying to position themselves in the Chinese market for several years now.
It is not by any means a stretch to believe that in our kid’s lifetime, they will see some form of President’s Cup where it is China vs. The World—the United States falling within the ‘World’ team.
Taking Tiger Woods aside, could we have seen the last of the American dominance of the PGA Tour?
Time will tell but I believe that barring any significant, earth-shattering world event, we are already past the point of no return.
As the world continues to flatten out in terms of economic prosperity, the geographic dynamics of the PGA Tour will take a similar shape.
We will continue to see a larger percentage of events won by international players, and we will continue to see international players coming from different countries.
We will see players coming from some of the Eastern European countries that have recently joined the European Union. We will see more golfers coming from Ireland, India, Australia and various Asian countries—and of course we will see a significant number of golfers coming out of China.
It is an exciting time for golf, as the PGA Tour continues to take on a more global form and the competition continues to improve along with the growing number of international golfers.
But it is also the end of an era for American dominance of the PGA Tour.
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