Quote:
Originally Posted by jebartle
Observation: 47 Asians, 41 Americans, hmmmmm! What has happened to our U.S. players.
Another observation, Men's purse 12.5 million, winner 2.25 million, women's purse 5.5 million, winner 1 million, hmmmm!
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The purses are based on income. The interest in women's golf is a fraction of the PGA tour. And it's not just women's golf. The European tour, Asian tour, South African tour, The Champions tour, and Korn Ferry all have much smaller purses than the PGA tour. Other than the Open Championship, other national championships have smaller purses than the US Open.
Golf is a business. Purses are paid for by ticket sales and television advertising. Advertisers are not willing to put up as much money for some events as they do for others. It's all based on how many people watch the events.
As far as Asian dominance, for a while, the LPGA tour was dominated by Swedes. It was found that Sweden had a great national golf program for women funded in part by the government. I wouldn't be surprised to find that some Asian countries, especially Korea have similar programs. Widespread golf in Asia is fairly new. It wasn't until people like Jack Nicklaus began designing and building courses over there in the eighties that many Asians knew anything about golf.
We see a lot more diversity on the PGA Tour as well. Up until the nineties the tour was pretty much a US Tour. Now it has gone international. I think that with the money these players make, even before they ever tee it up, and the convenience of air travel with private jets and ownership shares in jets more and more international players are able to come here and play. Another thing to look at is how many of these international players have attended college in the US. Many of them have lived here for four or five years before they began to play on the tours.
Back in the 60s and 70s, Gary Player was considered an anomaly. Today players that travel like he did are commonplace.
We are living in a worldwide community these days. Considering that there are a lot more Asians it's not surprising that we're seeing more of them excel in sports.