Why This Week Shows The Sorry (And Confusing) State Of Men's Professional Golf Right Now

This week is set to be one of the biggest of the year in the sport as Tiger Woods makes his highly anticipated comeback in The Bahamas at the Hero World Challenge.

The 15-time Major champion hasn't been seen inside the ropes since April's Masters before undergoing a procedure on his ankle. 

Tiger is always the talk of the golfing world and I am one of many millions of golf fans who will be eagerly tuning in to see the great man walk the fairways again. Sure, he won't win in the stacked 20-man field but we'll all just be happy to see him make some birdies and get through the four days unscathed.

But while it's going to be great to have him back, the 20-man exhibition event is sadly going to overshadow a couple of historic tournaments - which are bizarrely clashing.

The DP World Tour's 2024 season has started, after a three-day break from the 2023 season - it did make me laugh when they said on the DPWT Championship broadcast that next year's season starts next week - and the European-based circuit will be running two events for the second consecutive week.

We had the Joburg Open and Australian PGA Championship clashing last week and this time around it's two of golf's greatest national Opens.

Down Under, we have the Australian Open, which dates back to 1904 and has been won by the likes of Gene Sarazen, Peter Thomson, Bobby Locke, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Tom Watson, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth.

There has been calls for the Australian Open to become the fifth men's Major but it's not even going to be the most watched tournament this week. Winners in Australia reportedly only get to keep 50% of the prize money due to tax, which is likely one of many reasons why the great golfing nation has been largely forgotten about by the PGA Tour and most of the world's top players.

Australia is home to some of the world's greatest courses, and players throughout history, and its national Open deserves to be front and center of the sports calendar with all of the world's best players teeing it up - just like the Australian Open tennis Major. But Australia's Open doesn't have anywhere near the prowess in golf anymore that it does in tennis, sadly. 

And what's even more sad is that there's another prestigious, historic tournament taking place this same week - which will be fighting for eyeballs but losing out to Tiger Woods' return.

In the Johannesburg/Pretoria area there's another of golf's greatest championships taking place, too. The South African Open returns, with the tournament dating back to 1903. South Africa is another nation with some of the world's best courses and players throughout the years, but, like the Australian Open, it just can't attract the top players these days.

Winners of the South African Open include Gary Player (13 times!), Bob Charles, Tony Johnstone, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman, Henrik Stenson and Louis Oosthuizen.

Neither of these great championships boast any of the world's top-10 this week, while Tiger Woods' Hero World Challenge features six of the world's top-10 including World No.1 Scottie Scheffler. Even Jason Day, the second-highest-ranked Australian in the world, will be in the Bahamas instead of vying for his national Open.

So why? The Hero World Challenge offers up guaranteed (and inflated) world ranking points, guaranteed money and is a short hop on a private jet for the world's top players who are all based in the US. Travelling 20+ hours from the US to Sydney or 15+ hours to South Africa for fewer world ranking points, less money and the potential of missing the cut and going home early (and empty handed) just isn't realistic these days.

This is after full-on seasons playing week-in, week-out against the world's best from February to September. The season is done and dusted for the top pros, who are winding down for December.

Viktor Hovland was the PGA Tour's top earner this season with over $33m won on-course. To get him to fly to Australia and skip the guaranteed money and guaranteed world ranking points at the Hero World Challenge would surely require a hefty appearance fee or a prize fund of $20m+ to match the PGA Tour's top purses.

It's the same with someone like Scottie Scheffler. He'd surely love his name on the Australian Open trophy alongside Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, but he's earned around $50m on-course over the past two seasons and has already played 20 tournaments this year. 

It's a sign of where golf is at the moment. All the money and world ranking points are on the PGA Tour, which barely operates a handful of events outside of the US - and a co-sanctioned Scottish Open and the Zozo Championship in Japan are the only ones where long flights are required. Add in the even more lucrative LIV Golf League and the world's top players are raking in so much cash that they can solely focus their aims on winning Majors, money and playing in the PGA Tour's top events throughout the summer.

Sure, they'd love to win these old national Opens, like the Australian and South African, but right now with the way the men's game is, and the way the schedules are shaping up, that's just not realistic.

In an ideal world, the Australian Open and South African Open would feature on a true global tour that visits different countries each week with $20m purses, stacked fields and world ranking points. They'd be the showpiece events in their week on the calendar with the entire golfing world tuning in.

Maybe a world tour is something that could happen one day in a post-merger world, but that is really a pipe dream right now.

Check out all the best Cyber Monday golf deals on offer as selected by our team of equipment experts.