With our record of greats, SA deserves to host a Major

The 2023 PGA Championship was another cracking tournament. I just love watching Majors because you can see how it means so much to the players.

Once again, we had the world’s best golfers, including champion Brooks Koepka and his cronies from LIV Golf who still qualified, fighting it out for one of the greatest prizes in golf on a tough but gorgeous track.

The event was the 105th running of the PGA Championship, a tournament with a legacy that dates back to 1916. One with prestige, history and no shortage of legendary champions and memories. What more could we ask for?

Did you know how many PGA Championships have been played outside the US? Zero.

That’s not because the PGA is a purely American organisation; on the contrary, the PGA exists in pretty much every golfplaying nation.

Other countries even have their own PGA Championships. For example, there’s the BMW PGA Championship in England, which has been going since 1955, the PGA Championship in SA, which launched in 1965 and the Australian PGA Championship, which dates back to 1929. All are celebrated events with coveted trophies and a long list of esteemed champions.

So why is it, then, that the PGA Championship remains in the US?

I mean, the US also plays host to the Masters and the US Open, so it does seem a little unfair that they get to have three Majors while the rest of the world, barring the UK, get none. It makes sense to move the PGA Championship around the world, celebrating the reach and the influence of the Professional Golf Association.

PHENOMENAL WORK

The problem, I reckon, is that it feels like a case of the fox guarding the henhouse. Why would the PGA of America want to share the jewel in its crown — one that produces significant revenue — with other countries? Because it’s the right thing to do? Dream on.

The PGA does phenomenal work here in SA and Africa. In fact, the organisation helps produce so many highly talented teaching professionals and administrators, all of whom help to make the game a better place and their graduates work all over the world.

Yet, I reckon that when it comes to growing the game — which is one of the PGA’s main mandates — the PGA of America is missing a trick. A big one.

Taking a Major championship to different parts of the world can inspire new generations of young golfers and create a huge amount of interest in the game. All of which would boost the PGA indirectly over time.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the roaring success of the recent LIV Golf tournament played in Adelaide, Australia, as an example. Most of the US’s top golfers wouldn’t dream of venturing so far out of their comfort zone for a regular event, but thanks to their signed contracts, the big names all arrived — as they undoubtedly would for a Major — and it drew record crowds.

For many, it was the first time they had laid eyes on Dustin Johnson, Koepka and Phil Mickelson. And, having worked at many Nedbank Golf Challenges when it was still the 12-man format, I can assure you that seeing these guys in the flesh and watching their level of golf up close and personal is every bit as exciting and fascinating as you’d imagine.

Countries that are starved of big golf events will appreciate them so much more.

I can only imagine what a Major championship in Australia would mean to a country that has collected 31 Major titles (across men and women) and produced no fewer than 16 Major champions.

SHAKE-UP

The same goes for SA. With 26 Major victories, and countless PGA and DP World Tour wins, we have done more than our fair share in terms of producing champion golfers, despite the enormous travel distances our players face.

We have the facilities and, I’m sure, the desire to host a big one, but I just don’t see any will from the far side of the Atlantic.

I recognise that the US is the biggest force in golf at the moment and dominates on the Major record, but hometown advantage must play a role there, right? Imagine a Major being played here in SA — I’d fancy our players to have a good chance of grabbing the silverware.

And here’s another little nugget. Of the 25 players who have reached world No 1, only nine of them hail from the US. In other words, the rest of the world is not simply making up the numbers.

With the golfing world in the midst of a shake-up, I believe that now is the opportunity for the PGA of America to do the right thing and acknowledge the role that its sister organisations have played in improving the game across the world.

As a golf-loving public, we deserve the opportunity to see our golfers play on home soil, in front of home crowds and, just maybe, lift a Major trophy.