My master plan for the European Seniors Tour

THE 2007 European Seniors Tour got underway late last month when Europes leading senior golfers headed over to the Caribbean to compete in the annual DGM Barbados Open at Royal Westmoreland.

It was the first of somewhere between 16 and 19 events to be contested on this seasons EST schedule and also the start of a crucial 18-month period which could shape the very future of seniors golf on this side of the Atlantic.

Over the last couple of years the EST has been boosted by the arrival of the likes of Tony Johnstone, Carl Mason, Manuel Piero, Jos Rivero and Sam Torrance. Former Ryder Cup star Costantino Rocca also turned 50 in December and has indicated he plans to compete on a regular basis. But, the real crunch will come when Seve Ballesteros (April 9, 2007), Nick Faldo (July 18, 2007), Bernhard Langer (August 27, 2007), Sandy Lyle (February 9, 2008) and Ian Woosnam (March 2, 2008) all reach the age of 50 and decide whether or not to compete.

The EST will receive a massive boost if Europes former Big Five commit to playing a sizeable number of events on this side of the Atlantic but, it has to be said, the initial signs do not seem all that promising. 

Ballesteros has already made it clear that he sees his future on the more lucrative Champions Tour in America and there has also been murmurs that both Langer and Lyle will follow suit. Faldo has indicated that he plans to make his EST debut at this years Senior British Open at Muirfield but his TV commitments might preclude him from competing on a regular basis which just leaves Woosnam who, like Torrance before him, might be attracted by the congenial atmosphere on the EST but will also have to weigh up the loss of potential earnings if he turns his back on the States.

EST managing director, Andy Stubbs, has hitherto done a fine job finding sponsors but he will need the support of the European Tours executive director, George OGrady, and the main board of the European Tour if he is to stand any chance of persuading Ballesteros, Faldo, Langer, Lyle and Woosnam to play on the Seniors Tour on a more than occassional basis. 

With the best will in the world, Europes Big Five will never be tempted to compete in run-of-the-mill 150,000 events on the Seniors Tour but it is conceivable they could be induced to appear if a more lucrative series of tournaments was organised specifically on their behalf.

What I have in mind is for the tour to find an umbrella sponsor prepared to invest 3-5m to finance five special events featuring all of the Big Five.

Ballesteros, Faldo, Langer, Lyle and Woosnam would all host one of the events in their own country and all five would be televised live on TV.

The size of the field would be negotiable but could include the top-50 players on the previous years EST Order of Merit plus a number of invites from the Champions Tour and elsewhere abroad.

The above Big Five Series will sound like an attractive proposition to all those golfers who grew up watching the exploits of Ballesteros, Faldo (pictured) et al, but the fact is that it will never be anything other than a glorious pipedream, and not just because the whole idea is totally reliant on finding a sponsor prepared to part with that sort of cash.

Unless I am completely mistaken or overly-pessimistic the main sticking point might well lie, not with finding a sponsor, but from within the walls of Tour HQ itself.

After all, in the past, tour officials have, quite understandably, tended to push potential 3-5m sponsors, not towards the Seniors or Challenge Tours but to the European Tour itself and, unless there is an unlikely, and totally unexpected improvement in the worldwide economy, that practice is likely to continue for some time to come.

Equally understandably, tour officials would also find it hard to sanction anything that decimated media interest at main tour events, something that would be inevitable should the proposed Big Five Series be put up against European Tour events in, say, Majorca, Malaysia, Madrid, Moscow and Madeira.

Personally, I would love to see EST events regularly featuring the likes of Ballesteros, Faldo, Langer, Lyle, and Woosnam as well as Nick Price, Eduardo Romero and Mark McNulty.

But forgive me if I dont hold my breath just yet. Its a great dream, but the stark fact is thats probably exactly what it will remain.