Is Pro Golf Shooting Itself In The Foot This Week?

It's a fairly unique week in golf with three big tournaments which could all claim to be the star attraction.

One of those features the World No.1 and is an unofficial PGA Tour event, while the other two are part of the DP World Tour. A whole host of the world's top 50 are in action, including both Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, but they're all spread out in events competing for fans' attentions.

From west to east, Scheffler headlines in the Bahamas at Tiger Woods' Hero World Challenge, where he's going for a three-peat, while Viktor Hovland is the star attraction at 'South Africa's Major', the Nedbank Golf Challenge, and Rory McIlroy plays in the Australian Open.

Luckily for fans, all three events are on differing time zones but is this evidence of golf shooting itself in the foot?

Only the most avid professional golf aficionados will tune into all three tournaments this week, or at least catch up with highlights from all three, meaning that each event is losing out on potential eyeballs.

If you're one of those fans or have a view on this week's clash, let me know in the comment box below, I'd be interested to hear from you!

The Australian PGA Championship was in a great spot last week as the only PGA or DP World Tour event and I'm sure it benefitted greatly from that.

It had a very decent field contested at an interesting course for an historic prize. If you're a golf fan and were in front of a TV, chances are you either turned on the golf or sought out highlights on YouTube or wherever else you might get them.

This time around you'd likely need to take Thursday and Friday off work and then cancel any weekend plans to ensure you've digested enough of the Hero World Challenge, Nedbank Golf Challenge and Australian Open.

If you're looking for a tip from your author on which event to watch this week, it's an easy one - the Australian Open.

Rory McIlroy, Royal Melbourne and one of the game's greatest championships add up for a must-watch spectacle.

As well as the Masters champ, the field also includes the likes of Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee, Joaquin Niemann and a number of other DP World Tour regulars and LIV Golfers.

And for the first time, there's also a Masters spot up for grabs as well as three places in the 2026 Open.

The Nedbank is a brilliant tournament, too, with this week's event featuring Viktor Hovland, Marco Penge, the returning Will Zalatoris and a number of other notables.

The Hero World Challenge is always reasonably entertaining, and we've got Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Robert MacIntyre, Keegan Bradley, JJ Spaun and plenty of other recognized PGA Tour players to watch so it's a shame that many golf fans will inevitably miss out on some of the action at these events.

New PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has spoken about his desire for 'scarcity' in the game in his quest for a new-look and stronger PGA Tour, where less is more and fans have genuine anticipation ahead of the biggest tournaments containing the best vs the best.

This week is an example of the complete opposite.

In this fractured golfing landscape, scarcity certainly seems a good plan. There have been a number of empty weeks in the fall that one or two of these events could have fitted into, potentially, to ease the burden.

Having three big tournaments running at the same time is not ideal, especially as they're all good enough to be the only elite men's golf in any given week.

This clash not only means fewer eyeballs but also less media attention given to them and ultimately the events not quite reaching their potentials.

Let's hope we see less and less of these clashes going forward.