In a move certain to have far-reaching implications, Murphy's are banning all appearance money from the Irish Open, starting this year. But John Daly will be paid for playing at Druids Glen on July 1st to 4th as a publicity exercise by the host club.
The decision by the sponsors ends an accepted practice whereby effectively all major championship winners were paid appearance fees since the Irish Open was revived by Carroll's in 1975. It led to a steady stream of top American players to Woodbrook, Portmarnock, Royal Dublin, Killarney, Mount Juliet and most recently, Druids Glen.
Leading Europeans such as Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam were also significant beneficiaries, capable of negotiating up to £100,000 per appearance. Then there was the controversial appearance of Greg Norman at Mount Juliet in 1995, when he is understood to have been paid in excess of $300,000. All this is now at an end. "It is not our intention this year and for the future to enter into any individual player contractual arrangements," said Padraic Liston, Murphy's managing director yesterday.
Indicating that such monies would, in future, be directed towards the prize fund and the general development of the tournament, Liston added: "We will continue to give considerable financial investment in pursuit of this goal and have spoken with the European Tour of our wish to be totally supportive of their expansion programme."
Meanwhile, Daly will be a "guest" of Druids Glen this year, with a view to enhancing "the club's marketing profile in the US."
Interestingly, the sponsors are confident that the tournament won't suffer as a result of their decision. "We expect to have an excellent field and will shortly be announcing details to support that assessment," said tournament official Paddy Rossi.
Players and officials have always been tight-lipped about appearance fees, which were widely regarded as under-the-counter payments. The closest I ever got to any disclosure on the subject was from Mark Calcavecchia when, as the reigning British Open champion, he entered the Carroll's Irish Open at Portmarnock in 1990.
Why had he come? "Because the sponsors offered me a neat deal," he replied with typical, American candour.
When Michael Smurfit entered into a contract to sponsor the European Open, starting in 1995, he made the memorable comment: "After putting up substantial prize money, it came as a bit of shock to discover than I also had to buy myself a field."
All the while, the European Tour have maintained a regrettably ambivalent attitude to the practice, which is hardly surprising, given that the organisation is run by the players. Their latest position is that a sponsor may pay no more than 25 per cent of a tournament's prize fund in such fees.
On that basis, they wrote letters of reprimand to Murphy's and to the sponsors of the Dubai Desert Classic in 1995 for alleged breaches of the regulations, largely with regard to the appearance of Norman.
It will be fascinating to see how the particular ratio works out for the forthcoming Deutsche Bank SAP Open TPC of Europe, in Heidelberg. Given a prize fund of about £1.32 million, their appearance money should be limited to roughly £330,000.
For that, they are going to have Tiger Woods, Mark O'Meara, Nick Price, Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer, Colin Montgomerie, Jesper Parnevik, Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke in the field - which represents seriously clever economics.
