Gary Murphy column: European Tour stars ready for some rounds in the 80s

The Tour is reportedly going back to the future with a five week festival plan

European Tour chiefs may chart a course back to the 1980s as they bid to navigate their way through the hazardous waters of the coronavirus crisis.

The circuit is reportedly planning a five week festival in the UK – kicking off with the British Masters in late July – as part of a radical plan to get back on track.

In keeping with other sports, the tournaments will be staged behind closed doors but it offers a glimmer of hope for the game moving forward.

It would also herald the staging of five back-to-back tournaments in England and Wales for the first time in 40 years.

The 1980s were a golden period for the European Tour and I was blessed to see Seve, Faldo, Langer, Lyle and Woosnam battle it out on British courses on television.

They were special times and pre-dated the grip the PGA Tour now has on European players. Back then our top stars only travelled to the States to play the Majors.

Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari have already suggested the PGA Tour isn’t in their plans for the foreseeable and I suspect other European stars will follow suit.

Almost 12 weeks have passed since the last European Tour event was held in Qatar, with 21 tournaments subsequently shelved because of the pandemic.

In our pre-Covid world, everything was about the here and now, our feeds were littered with performance coaches spouting off about taking control of the present.

It was all bulls***. We have a dreadful habit of imitating the American model and it came at a cost in terms of our appreciation of the simpler things in life.

Let’s face it, sport was also at saturation level.

We had golf tournaments almost 51 weeks of the year. Great for players, but a case of quantity over quality.

I do fear some careers will fall by the wayside in the post-Covid terrain. Mini tours will struggle to be sustainable and the sponsorship that propped up many players will dry up.

Access to the paid ranks from the amateur game will be even more fraught with insecurity.

Golf, like many other sports, will have to take stock.

I do hope the European Tour’s plans for the summer pay off and players also come to realise in the short term that quality of life is key.

It’s inevitable the Tour will be streamlined, but we still have a great product and it’s a chance to press the restart button, personally and collectively.

The planned festival is a great way to get going again and I know every European player loves competing in Britain because tournaments there have a different vibe.

Heroes of the past like Seve and Faldo played their part in building up the European Tour.

This is a chance for the current generation to help with the restoration.

The quarter masters and the barracks

I’m a big NFL fan so to see Tom Brady and Peyton Manning tee it up alongside Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in The Match on Sunday was fascinating.

The beauty of golf is that all types of players can walk the fairways together and I was intrigued to see how Brady and Manning performed in such elevated company.

I know most pros would be nervous in such a surreal environment, never mind amateur golfers, but they acquitted themselves well in the circumstances.

It was interesting that while Brady and Manning are quarter-back superheroes, Manning admitted afterwards that at no point did he feel 100 per cent comfortable.

The two-time Super Bowl winner went on to win the charity shootout alongside Woods, but it was Brady who reminded us of his GOAT status with the shot of the day.

The six-time Super Bowl champ’s 100 yard pitch-in for a birdie earned an extra $100,000 from Brooks Koepka, who had joked on Twitter Brady wouldn’t make a par all day.

“Take a little of that medicine,” said Brady on the entertaining open mic broadcast which was miles better than Rory’s fourball the previous week.

The weather in Florida couldn’t have been worse, but there was a special feel to the game, with Brady, Woods, Payton and Mickelson playing as if the sun was on their backs.

The commentary is crucial to a broadcast like this and Charles Barkley, Trevor Immelman and Justin Thomas brought a real sense of fun to the production.

Brady and Manning aside, it was great to see that Tiger is fit and well, while Mickelson played a huge part with his entertaining smack talk.

In really strange times, it was brilliant to see some fun return to our screens.

Question of the Week

Q: Of all the tournament courses you have played, which one is your favourite, and which one would you gladly never play again?

My favourite course is Kingston Heath in Melbourne, Australia.

I played there in 2009 when Tiger Woods was the star attraction and for the first two rounds I played two groups in front of him.

I remember the crowds were 10 deep and the fairways lined waiting for the GOAT, who duly went on to win the tournament in what was his last title before his personal problems intervened.

The course left a huge impression on me and if you are ever in Melbourne, make it your business to play there.

My least favourite was St Omer in Northern France.

I played there in a dual tournament between the European Tour and Challenge Tour and it was an event you only played if you were having a bad season.

What was the course like? Let’s just say they spoiled a perfectly good farm.