Sutherland said McIlroy’s praise “was gold” and pointed to an Instagram post by US PGA Tour star Max Homa saying: “Instagram has me feeling I gotta play in Australia next year. Looks heavenly.”
“I hope lots of other golfers feel the same … actually I know there are a number of golfers that were playing in different parts of the world in the last week that were looking and saying, wow, I might’ve made a mistake,” Sutherland said.
But McIlroy also made pointed remarks about scheduling when asked if other stars might be motivated to join him at Kingston Heath next year.
Rory McIlroy at the Pro-Am before the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne.Credit: AFP
“I would love to have a few more players come down and play, but it’s hard with three tournaments going on in the schedule this week,” McIlroy said. “There needs to be conversations had with people much more important than me that set the schedules, and hopefully the Australian Open can find a date that that accommodates everyone, and everyone can at least have the option to come down.”
Max Homa’s post about the Australian Open.Credit: Instagram/maxhoma
The Australian Open clashed with Tiger Woods’ 20-player Hero Challenge invitational in the Bahamas, and the Nedland Golf Challenge in South Africa. Like the Australian Open, the latter is co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and the tournaments clash. Informed sources believe McIlroy’s comments were aimed at DP World Tour bosses.
Sutherland said he would have a debrief call with McIlroy to discuss the scheduling comments, and other ideas to further elevate the Australian Open. But Sutherland also indicated the tournament would not shift from Australia’s established two-week fortnight of golf, following the Australian PGA Championship.
“We definitely get his (McIlroy’s) feedback on that,” Sutherland said. “He can have conversations with people in higher office even more readily than we can. And hopefully his positive feedback will only strengthen our case.
“Scheduling is really challenging. There’s so much going on at the same time … we can decide to play whenever we want, but how it fits and works in with others is not something we have unilateral authority on. And in the scheme of world golf, we’re a smaller player. We don’t have the clout.
“One path is you can be beholden to the rest of the world, and try to squeeze in and around things.
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“Or the other route is you make a stand. What’s really important to us is that we play in the window that works for Australia and Australian golf fans. And I think then we go and back our product. We back our golf courses and we back our national championship, and its heritage and history. It feels like we’ve made a noise around that.”
Many US PGA Tour players take holidays in December but long-term, the mooted reduction of the US PGA Tour to a 20-tournament season between February and August after 2030 may free some up.
But as far as chasing players to join McIlroy next year, Sutherland said the Australian Open would continue to use the recruitment strategy that led them to signing the Northern Irishman.
“We’ll go after the ones that are interested, it’s not just about us going and chasing them,” he said. “It’s about us creating a compelling tournament on great golf courses that the real golfing purists, I guess, have a desire to come to. It’s about creating attraction at our end that goes well beyond writing cheques.”
