Michael Campbell’s Absence This Year
May 15, 2006 by admin
Reigning U.S. Open Champion Michael Campbell has been conspicuously absent from the PGA Tour this year. Unfortunately for him, the PGA Tour restricted the number of tournaments he could play because he did not compete in the minimum number of 15 tournaments in 2003. The PGA Tour requires all foreign-born players to play a minimum of 15 events or they are banned from joining the PGA for five years. On the surface this sounds a bit harsh, but the PGA does not want International players to only play a select number of events, then bolting back to Europe after they’ve cherry-picked the top events.
However, I think this policy needs an exception clause if the reigning U.S. Open or PGA Champion is a foriegn-born player. Campbell has turned down a dozen or so invites to tournaments across the U.S. because of his non-menber status. This not only hurts Campbell’s experience and exposure as the reigning U.S. Open Champion, but it’s also hurting tournament directors that would benefit immensely from the U.S. Open Champion playing in their respective events. Not to mention, it’s hurting his ability to prepare for his U.S. Open defense at Winged Foot this year.
As the current U.S.Open Champion, Campbell did have the option of joining the PGA Tour at the begining of the year, but he had to commit to playing the minimum of 15 events in 2006, something he was not willing to do. That’s understandable because he’s a card-carrying member of the European Tour and his home is in England where he and his wife are raising school-age children. He was recently quoted in Golf Digest saying while he enjoys playing U.S. events, he’s more comfortable playing in Europe because of the culture differences and doesn’t feel he has a lot in common with his American counterparts. Again, understandable because American players have said the same thing over the years when they’ve played the European and Asian tours.
Michael Campbell should be turning down invites to PGA tour events because there are too many to choose from, not because he’s being restricted by the PGA Tour.