Too much money causing problems for some events

There seems to be so much money available in professional golf these days that even players not classed as genuine stars have become rather blase about it.

This theme cropped up again last week during the Great North Open at Slaley Hall - where plans for the venue's 2009 Ryder Cup bid were unveiled, including an opening and closing ceremony to the tune of £10m.

Time is already running out for European players to qualify for this September's Ryder Cup at The Belfry yet, despite an overall tournament purse of 1.2 million dollars and a top prize of almost £133,000, the top pros stayed away from Slaley Hall -- apart from Europe's finest last year, Lee Westwood.

Westwood was defending his title and it is generally expected that the previous year's champion will turn up. The Englishman was also trying to revive a game which has been ailing all year.

But Westwood missed the cut and Scotland's Andrew Coltart, the only professional left in the field with any real kind of standing, ultimately carried off the trophy. To his great credit. The Scot had to keep it in the family, you see, after brother-in-law Lee won the title the year before.

But what on earth kept the top men away from Slaley Hall - a great course with excellent practice facilities set in a beautiful landscape? For the British players, it is readily accessible, being only a short drive away or a quick hop on a shuttle to Newcastle.

Yet nearly the whole gang gave the tournament a miss. All but four of Europe's top 30 sidestepped the event, as well as Colin Montgomerie, who is not even in the top 30 at the moment and really should be at this time of the year. This meant that even the so-called first division golfers avoided Slaley Hall, never mind the premiership boys.

Of course, you can understand South Africa's Retief Goosen, who kick-started his career at Slaley Hall in 1996, not making the trip after his terrific showing in the US Open at Tulsa. But it is extremely difficult to understand no-shows from virtually everyone else

The pros will say they need the occasional break. But not everyone was playing in the US Open.

There seems to be just too much money about at the moment and it must have been highly embarrassing for the promoters to go cap in hand to complete non-entities asking them to make up the numbers last week. They even asked a couple of lads from the Mastercard Tour, Europe's third division tour, if they would like to play.

A field of 156, though, still had to be shaved to 144 because the numbers just could not be made up. The Slaley Hall owners and the sponsors must have been disgusted, although they remained discreetly tight-lipped about the issue.

If you are making a genuine bid to host the Ryder Cup, you certainly do not want to make big waves at this early stage. But it is very difficult to see how a tournament can continue to put out largesse to the tune of £1m if only the also-rans are playing for it.

The European Tour will have to come up with some solution pretty quickly or the sponsors will soon lose faith that they are getting value for money.

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