It's up to European PGA Tour to reach out to eastern Bloc

A few months ago, I was in Montreal, covering the Presidents Cup.

During one of the press conferences - if memory serves, it was to the end of the event - Gary Player launched on a mini-tirade about the need to bring golf to more countries. He said, using the Presidents Cup as an example, that such an event should start being held in eastern Europe. He singled out the former Eastern bloc countries as one of the regions into which golf desperately needed to make inroads.

Hey, he’s got a supporter in me. As I’ve written elsewhere, golf has been slow to grow in central and eastern Europe. The European PGA Tour is the obvious candidate for this job. My colleague Tim McDonald has written about the Euro Tour’s affinity for filling in golf markets where the PGA Tour proper doesn’t have much of a presence, and I think he’s right.

But let’s face it, there ain’t no money, golf wise, in central and eastern Europe - at least at the level to compete with the Emirates or Asia. Still, look for some of the lessor Euro tours to slowly begin breaking into the region in the coming years.

Just the other day, the European Champions Tour announced that it will make its first visit to Poland next year for the Parkridge Polish Seniors Championship, to be played at Krakow Valley Gold and Country Club next may.

I guess that’s a start.

For now, here is WorldGolf.com staff writer Brandon Tucker’s review of Krakow Valley.