LATER this month, Professor Clive Palmer will stand on the deck of a US Navy battleship, the USS Intrepid, and officially unveil his plans to build Titanic II – a ship he says will be an exact replica of the original “but better”.

The Titanic II, to be operational by 2016, will have lifeboats for each passenger and crew and sail a route between the United Kingdom and the United States, which the original Titanic was built to do.

Palmer said he and his Blue Star Line obtained copies of the original RMS Titanic building plans and will work off those plans.

Of course this is not breaking news for anyone who watched the Australian PGA Championship played at Palmer’s Coolum Resort, as signs promoting Titanic II could be seen in the background from many camera angles. The broadcasters did, however, do their best to avoid the large painted signs in the middle of many fairways. These signs, and the erection of the eight-metre high dinosaur between the 9th green and 10th tee, were just some of the problems facing Australasian PGA Tour officials during the week of the PGA.

Less than a week before the first round, PGA officials were briefly locked out of the Coolum resort as they prepared for the event as negotiations regarding signage and sponsorship broke down. Palmer’s decision to paint the fairways with signage promoting his own companies – and a political slogan ‘Freedom of Speech’ – not only contravened Tour regulations, but was disrespectful of the event and the players supporting it.

The PGA hierarchy was understandably furious that its flagship event had been hijacked for self promotional opportunities, which added to the fact that Palmer refused to continue sponsorship of the event, something the former managers of the resort, Hyatt, had established.

I don’t think the PGA was at all surprised by Palmer’s self promotion antics and probably would have moved the championship to another venue given more time. Palmer’s self promotion knows few boundaries. Apart from bestowing all his golf course properties with his surname, public areas of the Coolum resort are ‘decorated’ with photographs of Palmer, while three hotel TV channels at the same resort are dedicated to him and his work.

Palmer has ambitious plans for a $2.5 billion redevelopment of his Coolum property and will include a beachfront hotel, theme parks, a convention centre, casino and monorail. There will also be 150-plus life sized dinosaurs added to the resort grounds alongside the Tyrannosaurus Rex that already calls the course home.

While Palmer says he remains confident the PGA Championship will be played at Coolum again, it will take a massive offer and reassurances of ‘playing ball’ from him to sway the thinking of PGA officials, who have been looking at prospective new venues for the nation‘s oldest professional event during January.

To be frank, the PGA doesn’t need Palmer. Nor does the mining magnate need the PGA.

The PGA will find a new home in Queensland (due to vital sponsorship money from the Queensland Major Events), probably on the Gold Coast.

Palmer should move on too. A man of his substantial wealth, who appears to have some interest in the game (although I don’t know that he even plays), could quite easily established their own tournament.

While his overall wealth took a hit in 2012, he still has plenty of cash in the bank and certainly has enough to create a golfing event that could easily rival any of the biggest money tournaments curently on the world stage.

Think of the worldwide TV audience that would tune in to watch the $12 million Clive Palmer Invitational with the top-20 ranked players in the world plus four special invitees vying for the biggest purse in the game. The exposure of such an event would certainly appeal to Palmer’s promotional side, while the opportunity to push his other businesses would not be hindered by Tour regulations.

Would such an event be good for Australian golf or would it hurt the current events on the Australasian PGA Tour calendar? I think it could only improve the depth of players competing in our other tournaments if they were scheduled around this limited-field event. At the very least, it would make it easier for the tournament organisers to haggle with managers if their player was already making the trip to Australia to play Palmer’s event.

Palmer has already hinted he would host his own event if the PGA Championship moves elsewhere but chances are it will only be a second-tier event. If only he was willing to really loosen the purse strings and establish a world class tournament in his beloved Queensland. Such a generous move would help the growth of the game throughout the country.

Like his Titanic II, he has the opportunity to replace the departing PGA Championship at Coolum with a tournament he would no doubt say was “similar, only better”.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Let me know your thoughts via email at golf@golfaustralia.com.au or simply leave your comment below. Follow me on Twitter @BrendanJames2