The Australian Masters

I was the Trainee professioanl at Huntingdale Golf Club in the late 1970's under the head professional Geoff Flanagan. Tournament promoters David Ingliss and Frank Williams created the Australian Masters at that time and right from the outset it was a fabulous Tournament made for the sports mad Melbourne crowds and marketed around the aura of Greg Norman. Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernard Langer and all the best Aussies made up the cast. It was common for the crowds to line every fairway 6 to 10 deep to get a peek at the Shark going head to head with the internationals or multple aussie winners like Craig Parry, Peter Senior and Ian Baker-Finch. Crowds for the week of 100,000 spectators were estimated. I was lucky enough to play in a few of these Masters and have a couple of top 10 finishes. In 1988 I actually had a 2 shot lead with 3 holes to play. I finished with 2 double bogeys and ended up running 7th behind eventual winner Ian Baker-Finch. I remember standing on the first tee on the last day and looking down the 1st fairway which was lined at least 10 deep both sides all the way to the green. Greg Norman was 2 groups behind me that day and spectators were jostling for a good view. I don't know what happened but this years Masters was flat, lacked energy and the crowd numbers were very poor. Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy didn't play and that probably contributed to the lacluster atmosphere, however Paul Casey and Michael Campbell did play as well as 50 players off the European Tour. So the argument that we need a strong International contingent for an event to be successful doesn't work. I think the current tournament organisers need to take a leaf out of Paul McNamee's and the new Golf Australia's fresh 'can do' approach to promoting our players and re-invent the Australian Masters. The Melbourne crowds are still here, they just need a new marketing strategy to get them enthusiastic again. Build it and they will come.