A World View
Courtesy: AFP/Tim Clary
In the wake of the recent President's Cup in Montreal – the first the U.S. team has won away from home – both captains expressed interest in taking the competition to some of the more far-flung locations in terms of golf popularity.
Gary Player got the ball rolling in the aftermath of Sunday's sometimes exciting, sometimes predictable singles matches when he said," We should be going into China. We should be going into India and I think we should be going into Eastern Europe. That would be my great dream to see that."
Jack Nicklaus was little more cautious in his view.
"The Presidents Cup needs to go over the next probably 10 or 15 years to places that can support it, understand it, really take care of the event. Ultimately the game of golf is going to grow in China, in the Eastern bloc, but it's going to be a long time before that is really there. You've got to go to the golfing countries of the world", he said.
The two captains, in other words, agree about the "where" but not about the "when" or the "how".
Player's view is this: take the game of golf to places where it's rarely played (although China is rapidly developing the sport through massive golf course construction) in order that the seed can be planted and the game begin to grow.
Nicklaus' view is different. Wait until golf is established in new markets and then take the President's Cup competition to them.
No matter whose view you support, they're both right on one point. Golf needs to generate and grow in parts of the world where it doesn't currently exist.
Trust me, the manufacturers are behind this one hundred and ten percent. So is every golf organizing body on the planet because where the game goes, money goes and in business, you always follow the money.
There's nothing new about sports seeking new markets. Football – "soccer", to the great unwashed – came to North America and established itself 20 years ago. Football had an advantage, though. North America holds millions of immigrants from countries where the sport is a religion. So it caught on and now we have the MLS which, in turn, has David Beckham (for what that may be worth). But the sport still struggles financially at the professional level.
Gridiron football had a hugely popular league in Europe, the brainchild of the National Football League. But NFL Europe wound down at the end of this season after a 15 year existence. Despite "record" attendance, averaging 20 thousand fans per game, NFL Europe suffered crippling financial losses.
The NBA has tinkered with global markets, playing pre-season and early season games in places like Japan and China where there is growing popularity for basketball.
But the NBA has a huge leg-up with Yao Ming, who single handedly has grown the profile of the game enormously in the world's most populous nation.
Turning that huge population into "cha-ching" at the turnstiles is another matter.
The National Hockey League would love to establish itself in Europe. Two regular season games last week in London, England between the anaheim ducks and Los Angeles Kings were sold out. But that's two games.
Frankly, the NHL has a better shot of exporting itself than the other two sports mentioned. Hockey is a big sport in the northern European countries (outside the United Kingdom), however domestic leagues pale in size compared to the might of the NHL.
And that's what's needed to help a game establish itself in a new market: some already existing popular support, a fan-base of some kind.
But there is also the intangible element of sport culture. Does the rough-and-tumble brand of NHL hockey work in Europe? Is NBA basketball with its large urban American culture exportable to Asia? And can the NFL make a second, more successful, inroad into Europe or should it look to Asia, as well, or South America?
No matter where these games go, they run into well established domestic sports with deep cultural roots.
But golf has proven to be very different. It's already an international game, with representation from every continent on the planet. However, that's no slam-dunk.
The game must be developed slowly and strategically, especially in cricket-mad markets like India.
That's why Jack Nicklaus' approach is the one with the best chance of success, insofar as the President's Cup is concerned.