"PGA TOUR is not the place for learning. That's essentially it. You've got to have your game when you're out here."
/Interesting stuff from Padraig Harrington today about the success of non-Americans in the U.S. this year. At least that's where he started, but then he moved into some things I've never heard a player suggest about the advantages of starting on the European Tour.
So the likes of -- before I came to the States in 2004, I probably won 20 times, or close to it. I'm not quite sure how many times, but a lot of guys before they come to the States, they've won. So when they get that chance, they have won before, they know how to win, whereas a U.S.-born player, especially since he gets his card very quickly on the Tour -- even if he doesn't, if he wins on the Nationwide Tour, he's likely only there one year.
A good season over here for a young player, he might get in contention three or four times, might win once, whereas a good season for a young player in Europe, he gets in contention 12 times and wins twice, two, maybe three times, and those 12 times he's in contention, he's going to learn a lot from those. He's going to learn a lot about himself, and that will help him grow as a player.
Yeah, there's no doubt that this is a tough thing to say, that the strength of the U.S. Tour doesn't help grow young players. If Vijay, as Vijay did a few years ago, won ten events in a year, it doesn't leave very many events for anybody else to win. That's a perfect example. If he wins 10 out of 45 events, that's 35 left. And if Tiger and Phil take five each out of that, and now the rest of the field are playing for 25 events, there's not a lot of events for players to win out there, a young player, whereas young players coming through the South African Tour or Australian Tour, Asian Tour, Japan or Europe, we all get our chance to build up our competitiveness, our ability to win down the stretch on numerous occasions before we come over here to the PGA TOUR where there is a lot more depth.
So I think, yeah, it's definitely -- if going forward -- you've got to be absolutely exceptional as a U.S.-born player to make it to the top, whereas I think you're given a little bit more time as an international player to learn your trade. It's not as cutthroat, as I said, in Europe or the rest of the world where you can learn who you are and come to the States when you're 30 years of age or so.
I'm sure there's great players coming out of college in the States who at 22, 23 years of age don't quite make it over their first five, six years and are probably burnt out or lost their confidence by 30, whereas a similar player, international player, has won 10 events by that stage and is chomping at the bit to get out here and do it on a different stage.