PGA Tour thrives as Europe suffers

As European golf chiefs battle to retain sponsors and a healthy schedule their compatriots across the Atlantic are basking in the game’s high profile stateside.

So much so that the PGA yesterday announced its 2013-14 listing yesterday, a virtual repeat of this year’s version except for the first-time the season will straddle two calendar years with the opening tournament next month.

The tour season stars at the Frys.com Open (October 10-13) and continues with five more events — including three overseas — before a six-week break and the resumption of the schedule with two January events in Hawaii which had previously signalled the start of the season. That’s all in marked contrast to the European equivalent which has struggled through the economic downturn over the past five years. Earlier this month the biggest golf tournament in India was scratched from next year’s schedule after The Avantha Group, which sponsored the first four years of the tournament, pulled the plug.