Yang's Shanghai victory symbolic of Golf's growing world game status

Yang won fairly and squarely in a strong tournament which included many of the world's leading players including (unusually) a handful of the top Americans (Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Chris DiMarco). The Indian professional Jyoti Randhawa performed creditably in the first two rounds of the tournament and other players from the non traditional golfing countries also did well.

World golf still dominated by the United States and Europe

The world of professional golf remains completely dominated by the United States (the PGA tour) and (to a lesser extent) by the European PGA tour. Indeed, absurd though it may seem, the Shanghai event was actually a European Tour event - as will be upcoming tournaments in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Meanwhile the really big money (as ever) will continue to be played for on the PGA tour. Any ambitious professional, of whatever nationality, must find a way of playing either in "Europe" or in the United States if he wants a chance to reach the top of his profession. Decent money can be won on the other tours in Japan and Asia, but the big prizes and the important world ranking points are confined to the US and Europe.

The epicentre of golf in the world is beginning slowly to shift

Yang's victory, and the gradual emergence of other very good players from all around the world, should give a sign to the traditional rulers of golf that things are changing. The presence of Tiger Woods at the Shanghai tournament (for the second year running) is a sign that he and his advisors are aware of China's enormous golf potential. With Woods having recently created a golf course design company it would not be a surprise if one of his first courses is in the People's Republic. Another has surely to be in Dubai - expect an announcement during the Tiger's visit to the emirate for the Desert Classic in February next year! The commercial potential of golf in non traditional locations like the Middle East cannot be overestimated - and it is no surprise that Woods is in line to follow the money. But are commercial considerations to be the only driver of the development of golf in the world?

Is it time for golf around the world to be properly managed?

Golf is the only major sport without a world governing body - there is no equivalent of cricket's ICC, football's FIFA or Rugby's IRB coordinating the development of the game. Whilst these bodies, and also the granddaddy of them all the International Olympic Committee, certainly have their problems they do at least provide a framework within which their sports evolve. In golf the supervision of rules of the game is divided between the United States Golf Association (for North America) and a private club (The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews) for the rest of the world - an absurd anachronism. More importantly there is little recognition in the professional tournament scheduling that tournaments ought to be more international both in the choice of location and in their participants.

American golfers generally stay at home

Some tournaments like the HSBC in Shanghai and the Dubai Desert Classic are sufficiently well funded to enable the organisers to pay the appearance fees that will bring one or two American stars to compete. You can be sure that Woods and the others at Shanghai received seven figure sums to take part in Shanghai and Woods appearance fee in Dubai has always been well over a million dollars. There is no incentive, other than money, to bring Americans to compete in any tournament outside the USA - except in the one Major (The Open Championship) that does not take place on American soil.

Time for a global approach to tournaments

It is high time that a world golf body was established to administer the rules of the game, to determine where accredited tournaments should place around the world and, above all, to reduce the over dominance of the United States and of Europe in world golf matters. It is another anachronism that the three of the four Major tournaments take place in the United States - why shouldn't there be (say) eight not four Majors with tournaments of Major status being established in those parts of the world where the game is growing fastest. Who knows perhaps Mr Yang might be the winner of the "Asian" Open in Korea in a few years time and receive the accolade of a Major winner as well!