By Alistair Hogg Paul McNamee is no stranger to organising an Australian Open. He attracts the stars, draws the fans and creates a buzz of excitement around the event that rivals similar tournaments around the world. But this time for the charismatic promoter, it was golf, not tennis. Since taking the reins as Executive Chairman of the Australian Open, McNamee has put the tournament back on the national sporting landscape. Over the last few years, the gloss and prestige of the tournament has gradually eroded. Fewer fans were coming, television ratings were down and players weren&apost respecting their national championship as much as many perceived they should. When McNamee joined the team at Golf Australia in March, his ambition was to raise the profile of the Australian Open and encourage more people to go out and see the nation&aposs leading players in action. Using the experience from his Australian Open tennis days, McNamee outlined one of the key things that he had to keep in mind when planning the tournament. “The underlying principle is that you&aposre in the entertainment industry and you&aposve got to try and take the position of the consumer and what they would like to experience when they go to the event and I think if you can look at it from that point of view it helps the decisions you make.” So what is the key? “Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere,” he said confidently. “The better the atmosphere, the luckier you get. I&aposve always believed that my role is to create and manage atmosphere and the rest will take care of itself.” Did he succeed? “I think we did kind of nail it,” McNamee said. “It was the first Australian Open under Golf Australia&aposs complete control. We had a really good tournament. The aim all along was to demonstrate that we could run a good event and get the tournament on a pathway to future growth. All indicators would appear that we have got it on that pathway.” Now the men&aposs event is complete, focus switches to the women&aposs tournament which will also take place at Royal Sydney Golf Club. The fact the tournament did not take place in the last couple of years presented McNamee with a considerable challenge. He had no blueprint to work from and little idea of what might be a successful formula for golf. But the Executive Chairman used his years of experience in sports management to ensure the tournament not only went ahead, but also looks like being a huge success. “It&aposs a slightly different situation from the men&aposs because the women&aposs tournament hasn&apost existed the last two years,” he said. “So just the fact it&aposs being played puts us way ahead in terms of positioning. We have a sponsor in MFS, we have television in ABC and we are co-sanctioned with ALPGA and the LET so the fundamentals are in place.” “We&aposre trying to run a good tournament and again, restore some faith with the Australian women as they have been disappointed that their national championship hasn&apost been played. We also want to try to position women&aposs golf as a pretty marketable product.” This task was made easier by the inclusion of some of the game&aposs biggest stars. Australian number one, Karrie Webb, will lead a world-class field that also includes Rachel Hetherington, Nikki Campbell and Ladies European Tour Rookie of the Year, Nikki Garrett. American beauty Natalie Gulbis is also set to start along with defending champion Laura Davies from Britain. The event is co-sanctioned with the ALPG Tour and Ladies European Tour that ensure a host of international stars will strut their stuff down under. “Almost half of the field is made up with European Tour players,” McNamee said. “We also have an agreement with the Korean Golf Association that have 18 Korean women in the tournament and we&aposve got a few Japanese women as well, so it&aposs a very good, balanced international field obviously headlined by Karrie Webb who&aposs just had an incredible year.” The MFS Women&aposs Australian Open begins on February 1 and will be launched on Tuesday at Royal Sydney. Tickets will be on sale from Wednesday.