Hayes: Just One Big Aussie Event, Please

Mark Hayes speaks for a lot of people in urging Aussies to figure out a way to have at least one big event perhaps instead of trying to put together a string of tournaments to attract top players.

Because as Kingston Heath reminded us, Australia golf is just too pure to not be attracting more top players--including Aussies--this time of year.

Our national Open and PGA championships have hitched their future to the OneAsia Tour and are, despite inevitable protests from those involved in decisions about their future, properties of media giant World Sports Group.

The rival IMG Media, an arm of the company that owns and promotes the Masters, is in a commercial war that means the tournaments are - despite public assurances to the contrary - rarely treated with the same even hand.

Meanwhile, for the fourth year in a row, we've had a range of the world's best golfers visit Melbourne's Sandbelt and sing its praises in the sweetest possible tones.

In an ideal world, the PGA Championship would travel there in a fall date slot every four years when the Olympics are played around the traditional PGA date. This would give the fifth of four majors instant international cache. But since taking the PGA west of the Mississippi appears a stretch, we'll keep dreaming of something else grand for Australia.