From the Rough: World peace

At the risk of upsetting George Bush and my one American fan who reads this blog, I have decided that the United States should no longer host three out of the four Majors. Whilst acknowledging the enormous contribution that the USA has made to the game ? not least the seemingly universal cry of ?Get in the hole!? that greets every tee-shot on a par 3 ? I think the goodies should be more evenly distributed around the world.

Accepting that the US Open, the Masters and our Open should stay where they are ? for the time being at least ? where should the fourth Major be held? The continent of Europe has a strong claim as does Australia and Japan. But the geopolitical argument for giving it to the Middle East is, I believe, overwhelming.

Only through golf will undemocratic countries come to appreciate the real benefits of living in a free and open society. Saudi Arabia could host the first World Open, then maybe Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and so on. After the Middle East has been converted, it could move on to the Far East and so on until the whole world was so infatuated with golf that fundamentalism, insurgency and developing nuclear weapons would appear to be less appealing than having a couple of players in the top 50 in the Sony World rankings.

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