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If you pull up your floorboards and find an old newspaper and flip to the sports section, it will probably include a story about the decline of the Australian Golf Tour.
The laments about the quality — or apparent lack of quality — of the fields for local events such as this week’s Australian Open and even next week’s World Cup seem to have started before Old Tom Morris found his first bunker.
The noted absence of Australia’s most highly rated players Jason Day, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman from the national championship is not exactly “stop the presses” news either.
It is decades now since we realised the expansion of the US, European and Asian tours, including serious events and even novelty hit-and-giggles in once-off off-Broadway golf locations such as Dubai, meant both international and Australian players were sorely tempted to play elsewhere.
But as you watch a somewhat desultory Australian Open in which most of the big names are on the trophy rather than the fairways, you cannot help wonder how the game is continuing to produce significant local stars.
If you buy into the notion that the most recent generations of Australian stars were inspired by the epic feats of high-profile players, major winners Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and Karrie Webb were among the last of the Greg Norman generation that also included the likes of Stuart Appleby and Robert Allenby.
Norman caused a golf explosion with his brilliant and sometimes tragic feats at the majors and his epic performances on home soil, during annual appearances at then significant events including the Australian Open and the now-defunct Australian Masters.
Following the generational lineage, Day is merely the most prominent Australian product of the incredible Tiger Woods era.
Woods was the Michael Johnson of golf, inspiring an enormous number of players worldwide with a game that was as ballistic and charismatic as Norman’s, but with far more major silverware to show for it.
Golf Australia has done well in recent years to promote the efforts of its best local and international players against the tide of an increasingly football-obsessed Australian sporting media.
But without the swashbuckling Norman returning to conquer the local scene or Woods at his unbeatable best, who is inspiring young Australians to play the game? And, if there is no answer, does the potentially dwindling pool of players mean the chances of producing the next Norman, Scott or Day is diminished?
Former European professional turned golf course architect and historian Mike Clayton agrees that role models and mass participation can help produce a battalion of top-line players.
“You look at the Korean women who have come through in the last 10 or 20 years,” Mr Clayton said. “They were inspired by Se-ri Pak (a five-time major winner).
“Because of her, golf became the number one sport of choice for Korean women whereas golf here is competing with 10 other sports for players. So obviously they are going to produce a lot of good players.
“Geoff Ogilvy didn’t take up golf because of Greg Norman. He took it up because he lived behind a golf course and he fell in love with the game.”
Australia still the lucky country for golf
In that regard, Mr Clayton believes Australian golf continues to enjoy many natural advantages over other countries — it is relatively cheap, public golf courses are plentiful and we have relatively good weather.
Then there is the other, often understated advantage Australian golf has enjoyed over the past 30 years — top-line coaching expertise that has seen promising young players given the best possible chance of competing in a sport where international expansion and state-of-the-art equipment have vastly increased the odds of making it to the top.
“My generation had terrible swings because we copied Nicklaus, Weiskopf and Miller, whereas coaches like Dale Lynch and Steve Bann gave their students — Appleby, Allenby and then guys like Ogilvy, Leishman and so on — great swings. And you need that just to compete these days,” Mr Clayton said.
But he acknowledged the leap from a now very limited Australian Tour to the ultra-competitive scene is much tougher than in the days when Peter Senior and Wayne Grady could turn up at Monday qualifying for European tournaments and play their way into the field.
Now the Qualifying Schools for the major tours are arduous battles between a battalion of players, including many from nations where golf was once an obscure foreign concept, all fighting for the right to play for millions of dollars.
At the same time, the advantages that once came from winning some Australian tournaments has diminished.
This year’s Australian Open winner won’t be guaranteed a start on any overseas tour although, somewhat oddly, the upgraded Victorian Open is now a European Tour event with the winner earning playing rights there.
But if there are good reasons to believe Australia will continue to produce talented players despite its very limited local shopfront and the lack of a charismatic megastar, this golfing summer seems almost alarmingly low-key.
The resulting reduced media profile could in turn have an impact on local clubs that are trying to find ways to attract members who don’t have the time to regularly play 18 holes and justify their fees.
If potential young stars are not brought to the course by golf-obsessed parents or inspired by superstars, where will they come from?
For now, Australia continues to drive, pitch and putt above its weight. But we might not know for a decade whether the game’s natural advantages alone can continue to produce world class players without a significant local showcase or an iconic superstar.
Offsiders airs on ABC TV at 10:00am on Sunday
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