As we try to contain ourselves with Tiger’s return to the US PGA Tour, I thought I’d share a little story on the consequences of his star power. More specifically, it’s a story of epic inflation.
During a recent office clean-up I stumbled upon the February 1993 edition of Australian Golf Digest – coincidentally 25 years to the month of the edition you’re reading now. While flicking through the discoloured pages, one article immediately stood out. It was written by Golf Digest USA editor-in-chief Jerry Tarde and titled ‘So you want to hire the Shark for a day’.
In his editorial, Tarde revealed the fees players were demanding to tee it up in a tournament or make an appearance at a corporate function. Greg Norman was the man back then and commanded a king’s ransom. Fair enough. But other figures were just as eye-catching. A young Phil Mickelson and legendary singer Ella Fitzgerald both charged $US30,000 plus expenses for a one-day appearance. “Now Phil is a nice young man with, in the words of a TV commentator, ‘his future still ahead of him’. But Ella is Ella, the greatest who ever lived. She could give Phil two shots each nine,” wrote Tarde, who made no secret of just how well our professionals had things back then.
“Modesty is rare in sport today, especially among the mercenaries who call themselves professional golfers,” Tarde wrote. “It might seem at times that golf pros should have to pay to fly first class, be picked up in limousines, hang around influential people and play golf on great courses. But, in fact, golf pros who do these things are the ones paid sums of money that would make a Colombian drug cartel blush.”
Fees were similar in Australia at the time, too. According to International Management Group (IMG), a Major winner could command $US25,000 while a multiple tournament winner could expect to fetch $8,000-$12,000 for gracing us with his presence.
To put that in perspective, in 1993 the average full-time Australian salary was $33,000, the median house price in Sydney was $188,000 and the average size purse on the lucrative US PGA Tour was $1 million.
Fast-forward 25 years and the numbers are staggering. The average Australian salary is more than $80,000 (up 140 percent), the median house price in Sydney is $909,000 (up 380 percent) and US PGA Tour purses are now $7 million (up 600 percent).
Pretty impressive, right? Now comprehend this: Major winner Jordan Spieth was reportedly paid $1 million to play the Australian Open. That’s up 3,900 percent from 1993 numbers. Just to show up!
Who do we thank for this? The man on the cover of this magazine.
“I think it all started when Tiger was paid upwards of $US3 million to come out to Australia in 2009,” a source inside tournament golf tells us. “That 2009 Australian Masters was the tipping point and now we’re seeing ridiculous demands coming through other from player managers.”
Such outrageous demands include a recent one-time Major winner asking for upwards of $US700,000 to play an Aussie event this summer, a likeable Champions Tour player commanding $US300,000 to touch down for a miserly four days, and several US PGA Tour players well outside the world’s top-50 all wanting north of $US200,000.
But our source says the biggest frustration for tournament promoters is the demands of some of the lower-ranked Australian players, both young and old, who continually ask for everything but the kitchen sink to come and play. At home. In the place where they got their start. A place where they may even feel compelled to give back to the game?
While inflated egos and appearance fees are huge hurdles for Australian golf to climb, there’s an even bigger problem at play.
“You can’t run a golf tournament in Australia without state government support,” adds our source. “But the problem is the governments now want exclusivity rights on players they help sign up. That’s just wrong and counter-productive for the future of the game. Nobody wants to see a Jason Day, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth or Marc Leishman only play one tournament in Australia. We need to get more bang for our buck, collectively, but it can’t happen in the current environment.” Private jets, million-dollar endorsements and the greatest superannuation scheme in the world, all for hitting a little white ball around with equipment so good it would make Ben Hogan turn in his grave.
“Pro golfers take for granted the kind of treatment that is usually promised only to winners of lotteries. They have no idea how good they have it and how unfair life really is,” Tarde wrote in ’93. Today’s millionaires club have Tiger to thank for that. He’s made a lot lesser players a whole lot richer. And he’s one win away from doing it all again.
Brad Clifton
Editor-in-Chief
@bradcliffo
