Rory McIlroy was among the stars in action at the Australian Open, hosted by the iconic Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
McIlroy was blown away by the Australian Open fans, who turned up in huge numbers to watch the Northern Irishman in action.
He was joined by PGA Tour stars Min Woo Lee and Adam Scott at the tournament, where LIV Golf duo Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann were also involved.
Smith impressed by finishing second on home soil, but Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen won the Australian Open by one shot as McIlroy finished T14.
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McIlroy was, however, the star attraction at the Australian Open, which he thinks could draw more attention if the PGA Tour were to shorten its schedule.
“Yeah, I think I understand what they’re doing,” said McIlroy, as quoted by Fox Sports. “They’re trying to get their domestic model right before focusing internationally, and they obviously don’t want to go up against football.
“NFL is king in the States, and it makes sense from an American point of view, but then I think it does let international and global golf shine for five months of the year.
“So if the Tour are really thinking about playing from February through to August, that leaves September through to January for here and Europe and wherever else in the world to really be the shining light of golf for those five months. So I think people could really get behind that.
“And you sort of have the American swing with maybe the Scottish Open and The Open in the middle, but the rest of the big international stuff sort of in that September to January time frame, which I think works pretty well, especially for the southern hemisphere, for tournaments like this.”
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Rory McIlroy’s proposed change could work very well for golf fans
A shorter PGA Tour schedule is indeed on the mind of CEO Brian Rolapp, but what that looks like remains to be seen.
It would, however, as McIlroy alluded to, increase the spotlight on tournaments such as the Australian Open.
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And given what happened in Melbourne that wouldn’t be a bad thing, with the Australian Open having been a roaring success.
It attracted huge attention despite taking place at the same time as the Hero World Challenge, the tournament hosted by Tiger Woods that featured world number one Scottie Scheffler.
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