The PGA Tour and European Tour have been "covertly discussing the possibility of an official partnership for more than two years," according to a source cited by John Huggan of GOLF WORLD. Those talks are "well advanced," to the extent that European Tour CEO George O'Grady has been "afforded a close-up view of the PGA Tour's finances." The OneAsia tour additionally "has been looked at as another possible part of the PGA Tour expansion plans." This means recent reports about a PGA Tour acquisition "have genuine substance and huge implications for the future of professional golf across the globe." A worldwide but "U.S.-dominated circuit into which the likes of the European, Asian, Japanese and Australasian tours could feed has an undeniably attractive vibe." Huggan: "With all of the leading practitioners competing ... how could it not be a step in the right direction for a game that has, for too long and too often, been managed by depressingly inward-looking, parochial interests?" European golfer Sam Torrance said, "We are the second division compared with the PGA Tour. It's always been that way ... for us a World Tour would be fantastic." Meanwhile, Huggan writes the Ryder Cup could be a "casualty" if a world tour came to fruition. It could "lose its inherent edge and slowly morph into a glorified exhibition not unlike the Presidents Cup" (GOLF WORLD, 8/26 issue).
