Reports that the U.S. PGA Tour plans to buy the European Tour "have been denied by the Wentworth-based body," according to Iain Carter of the BBC. It has been suggested that the American circuit "wants to take advantage of the Eurozone economic crisis with a bid to take control of the European Tour." Such a move would give the PGA Tour a share of the Ryder Cup "and would help its desire to claim a bigger stake in the booming Chinese golf market." European Tour COO Keith Waters described the reports as "incorrect" (BBC, 8/13). The GOLF CHANNEL's Rex Hoggard wrote "published reports that the PGA Tour has made a bid to buy the European Tour seem premature according to numerous sources." The reports -- which appeared this week in the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph in the U.K. -- "do not cite specific sources." The reports quote Paul Casey, a member of the European Tour's players' committee, "although the Englishman stops well short of suggesting he would be in favor of unified tours." A PGA Tour spokesperson declined to comment on the reports and numerous sources said that "such a mega-merger between Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and Wentworth, England (home of the European Tour) would be a tough sale on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean" (GOLF CHANNEL, 8/13).
