Historic rivalry comes back to life as the Americans ditch BMW PGA Championship
It might have gone unnoticed otherwise that the Europeans and Americans are ditching each other in their respective tournaments, if the strong field of this week’s BMW PGA Championship had not boasted just two players from the US. The rivalry between the
two continents, or to be more specific, between the US and the Great Britain, is turning a new leaf as the players are apparently throwing their weights behind the tournaments. John Daly, the two-time major winner is representing the US, although on a sponsor’s
exemption, alongside Anthony Kang, who qualifies to play at the coveted event because of his victory in 2009 in Malaysia.
The absence of Americans can hardly be ignored in the tournament, something which has delivered a severe jolt to the credibility of the tournament. Many critics also cite the American player’s decision to stay away from BMW PGA Championship as a backlash
of Lee Westwood and Rory Mcilroy’s decision to stay away from the Players Championship, which the Americans proudly call as the “fifth major”. But that pseudonym for the Players Championship is only restricted to the main land America.
An email from the European Tour, a few weeks back, referred to Westwood’s statement, when he reportedly called the BMW PGA Championship as the “fifth major” in the world. It gets even more amusing when many of the top-ranked American players, who are absent
from the event, are not playing anywhere, let alone the HP Byron Nelson Championship in Texas.
Phil Mickelson decided to take a break while Tiger Woods has seemingly endless woes of his own. Matt Kuchar is the only Top-10 player participating in the event along with only ten Top 50 players according to the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). While
the European Tour struggles to take the event to new heights, it would be impossible without the participation of American players regardless of the fact that they have thin representation in the top ten in OWGR.
The European critics often accused the American and PGA players of being inconsiderate of the European Tour. The Americans hardly deem it appropriate to go all the way to Europe to play in one tournament while they have their own PGA Tour events going on
every week with almost the same prize money and ranking points. Wells Fargo Champion, Lucas Glover fetched 58 points for the victory while this week’s winner at Wentworth will get 64 points, barely the reasonable difference which would convince a player to
fly to another continent.
The Americans, on the other hand, took it as an exception that the world number one Westwood and number six Rory Mcilroy would not show up at TPC Sawgrass. The players however, have their own perspective of being selective of the events. Both players are
not on the PGA Tour list and Westwood has already stated that he would not go to the US for just one tournament. His statement does not hold much ground when he constantly shuttles back and forth in Asia to play on Asian Tour.
For the moment, the sport remains in the lap of the European trailblazing players and there are hardly any budding American players who would challenge the new generation of European golfers. Three of the last four Masters winners were not Americans. Out
of last seven US Open winners, five are non-Americans. Out of last four Open Championship winners, three are non-Americans. In front of the young Europeans guns like Matteo Manassero, Martin Kaymer and Rory Mcilroy, Americans have little chance in near future
to snatch a decent share in the OWGR.
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