The leaderboard of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championships is filled with many familiar names. Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and World Number #1, Luke Donald are just a few of the high proflie golfers at this week's tournament. In total, 11 of the top 25 players in the world made the trip to Abu Dhabi for the tournament. You might be wondering why these 11 would make the long flight to the capital of the United Arab Emirates (the shortest commercial flight from the United States I could find was more than 13 hours) instead of competing at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego (to be fair, some of these players are from Europe and thus significantly closer to Abu Dhabi than San Diego). I imagine however, that you are intelligent enough to have figured out why, without me having to tell you. But I’ll do so anyway. $$$$$$$.
The Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championships offers the richest purse ($2.7 million) on the “Gulf Swing” of the European Tour, according to their official website. However, that number is less than half of the $6 million purse in San Diego. So how is money factoring into the decisions of the top players to show up in the middle east? The Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championships makes up for their smaller purse by offering an “appearance fee” to entice the top golfers. And that figure, at least for Tiger Woods, is believed to be just a bit less than the entire purse for the tournament (around $1.5 million). This means several of these top players could travel to Abu Dhabi, play poorly, enjoy a cocktail under a palm tree on Al Bateen Beach, visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (you're welcome Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority) and then head home with more money than the golfer who actually wins the tournament.
I don’t want to waste too much of your time on the merits of “appearance fees” or whether or not events on the PGA Tour should be allowed to offer them (currently they are not). For one, I don’t care that much. Secondly, Bob Harig and Michael Collins already addressed the topic in pieces earlier this week, and did so better than I could. For the record, I will accept an “appearance fee” to appear anywhere at any time after 1pm. I’m not an early riser, so unless you’re willing to pay more than a million dollars, I’ll be asleep until the early afternoon.
So what do I want to talk about if not the only news worthy item regarding this minor tournament? I want to talk about golf in the desert. This seemingly innocuous topic is something that irritates me. Golfing in the desert seems as unnatural to me as Twinkies. How can a game that is played on grass be played in a locale where grass is unable to grow?
If you insist on golfing in the desert, then the course should be made out of sand with the occasional “grass trap.” And water shouldn’t be a hazard; it should be a blessing. Golf might not be that fun in this bizzaro version. However, I’m not sure real golf is that fun. Mark Twain famously joked, “golf is a good walk spoiled.” So why not add a bit of adventure by taking full advantage of all the dangers the desert offers? Instead of seeing who gets the lowest score over the weekend, why not just find out who can survive the weekend? The Golf Channel has a lot of programming to fill, so get on this Mark Burnett. I have no interest in playing in this reality show/tournament. Not because of the perils involved, but because I burn easily. However, for a reasonable “appearance fee,” I’d be willing to make a cameo.
- Otto
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