European Tour stalwart Richie Ramsay believes the initiative shown by fellow Aberdonian Paul Lawrie in the way he is staging his new tournament in the Granite City this week can help show golf how to draw in new audiences.
The three time tour event winner and former US Amateur champion said setting up the Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Matchplay as a knockout event rather than a standard 72-hole strokeplay contest showed the kind of innovative thinking that is required and expressed hope that the new regime in charge of the European game would follow that lead in anticipating a “football atmosphere” being generated.
“I remember playing the U.S. Amateur and we had, I think it was, 5,000, 6,000 people and it was like two deep on every hole and when you have that, it's very much like a sort of football atmosphere,” he said.
“It's a great thing to play in and a unique experience that we don't get every week... and that's something that look great or TV and sound great on TV when putts go in.
“It will add something different to the event, something that maybe the Tour are looking at with regards to new formats and being a little bit more proactive in trying to produce a product people want to see and want to watch on TV.”
Ramsay suggested inspiration could also be drawn from Formula One’s floodlit racing and also put forward a proposal that bears similarities to Hopman Cup tennis.
“We played a course at China this year that was floodlit at night,” he noted.
“Matchplay events, whether it be, just thinking off the top of my head, like a PGA Tour, European Tour, ladies tour, putting them all together, having a team, I don't know, something like that.”
Pointing out that there are figures showing that spectatorship is declining Ramsay expressed confidence that fresh thinking will be applied.
“I think the people we have coming in will be very open to that and they have a distinct record of being successful in the business that they have been in and they will look to develop those opportunities,” he said.
“We've got a lot to sell in Europe. I think you saw last week, you watched Crans-sur-Sierre, it looked an unbelievable tournament and especially people in America love that because it's different, it's character, it's something they can sell. It's something that is unique.”
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