Tiger Down Under

Tiger came, he saw and he most definitely conquered. His trip to Australia was a success in every which way. It was as good a public relations as exercise as you could hope for. Everyone loved him, everyone behaved themselves and he won the tournament. Most importantly was that Tiger had a good time. It was his first trip back to Australia in 10 years and it was well worth the wait.

It was also a huge shot in the arm for Australian golf. In the 1970s the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player would go down under to play but in recent years not only have the international stars been avoiding going to Australia but many of the big name Australians haven’t been playing. This has meant that golf in Australia was suffering.

Australia loves its sports and loves to prove itself on the global stage. It hosted the 2000 Olympics which are one of the best games of the modern era. Brilliantly organized, they were basically flawless.

In addition to that, Australia hosted the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the 2006 Commonwealth Games which took place in Melbourne. Australia is also looking to host the World Cup. Soccer betting isn’t sure what to make of Australia’s chances but the biggest sporting tournament of them all has never been to Australia and it deserves to.

Australia would make a great fist of it as it does with most sporting events that it hosts. The spotlight is going to be South Africa to see how it fares with the 2010 World Cup and Rio with the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.

Before then, Vancouver has the 2010 Winter Olympics and London the 2012 Summer Olympics. Both of these games should be enjoyable as both of these cities seem to be well ahead in terms of planning.

The truth of the matter is that it is becoming harder and harder to host a huge international sporting event. Not only do you have to be able to host all of the athletes, but the spectators and media. You need the stadia to be big enough and you need transportation to carry the spectators to and from the sport. The days of Helsinki and St Louis hosting the Olympics seem to be well and truly over. Likewise you won’t think that Chile, Sweden and Switzerland won’t be hosting another World Cup, at least not by themselves.

David Wiseman writes for this blog. He also writes about harness betting.