Asian Tour
The Asian Tour is the principal men’s professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. The Asian Tour is administered from offices in Singapore. It is controlled by a board with a majority of professional golfers, and a Tournament Players Committee of its player members, supported by an executive team.
The first season in the current lineage was played in 1995, although there had been earlier attempts to create an Asian Tour. The Asian PGA was formed in July 1994 at a meeting in Hong Kong attended by PGA representatives from eight countries. In 1998 the Asian Tour became the sixth member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. In 2002, the tour moved its office from Hong Kong to Malaysia and in 2004 the tour was taken over by a new organisation established by the players, who had been in dispute with the previous management. In 2007 it moved to new headquarters on the resort island of Sentosa in Singapore,[1] which is also the home of the tour’s richest sole sanctioned tournament, the Singapore Open. Official money events on the tour count for World Golf Ranking points.
Most of the leading players on the tour are Asian, but players from other parts of the world also participate (as of 2007 the country with most representatives profiled on the tour’s official site is Australia). Each year the Asian Tour co-sanctions a number of events with the European Tour, and these events offer higher prize funds than most of the other tournaments on the tour. From 2008, 50 per cent of players’ earnings from the US Open and the Open Championship will count towards the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit. The two Opens have been singled out from the other majors because they have open qualifying which Asian Tour members may enter.[2]
In 2004 the total prize fund was 11.4 million U.S. dollars, and by 2007 it had risen to 27.73 million U.S. dollars (all purses are fixed in dollars apart from those of The Open Championship and the Johnnie Walker Classic, which are fixed in British Pounds). However most of the tournaments with seven figure U.S. dollar purses are in events co-sanctioned by the European Tour, and European Tour players tend to collect most of the winnings in those tournaments. Asia’s richest event, the $5 million HSBC Champions tournament, was first played in November 2005, is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour but did not count towards the money list for its first three years as any high placings by Asian Tour players would distort the money list, but from 2008 50% of the prize money will count towards the Order of Merit. The tour’s richest sole sanctioned event is the Singapore Open, which will also reach the $5 million level in 2008. The tour’s schedule remains quite unstable, with several in-season cancellations, reschedulings and prize fund alterations in 2007.
In 2006 the Asian Tour became the most prestigious men’s tour on which a woman has made the half-way cut in recent times when Michelle Wie did so at the SK Telecom Open in South Korea.
Schedule
This link shows the 2008 schedule.
Top Five Players
1. Jyoti Randhawa is an Indian professional golfer who is ranked in the top 100 of the world and is the second highest Indian in the world rankings.
Randhawa was born in New Delhi. He turned professional in 1994. He participates on the Asian Tour and the European Tour. In 2002, he finished top on the Asian Tour money list. His best finish on the European Tour is tied second in the 2004 Johnnie Walker Classic. He is married to the actress Chitrangada Singh, who starred in the Indian movie Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi.
2. Arjun Atwal is an Indian professional golfer who has played on the Asian Tour and the European Tour and was the first Indian to become a member of the U.S. based PGA Tour.
Born in Asansol, West Bengal, India, Atwal took up golf at the age of fourteen, playing at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, (which was founded in 1829 and is one of the oldest golf clubs outside the United Kingdom). He also spent two years at school in the United States, attending W. Tresper Clarke High School, in East Meadow, NY. After turning professional in 1995 he became one of the leading players on the Asian Tour, topping the order of merit in 2003 and becoming the first man to win a million U.S. dollars on the tour by winning the Hero Honda Masters on home soil in the same year.
3. David Bransdon played in Asia during the mid-1990s before switching his attention to his home circuit in Australia. He decided to refocus his golf in Asia in 2005, first earning his card from Qualifying School in Malaysia and subsequently establishing himself.
David said his putting has previously been his Achilles heel but worked on his routine by not spending too much time over a putt which he says reduces negative thoughts. Says reading a book by sports psychologist Bob Rotella titled “Feel it, see it and hit it” has also helped in his mental approach.
4. Jason King played full time in Asia in 2006 after earning his Tour card from Qualifying School. Finished tied 21st place at the Aamby Valley Asian Masters in India and Brunei Open, his best performances of the season.
Played in five events in 2007 and delivered his best performance at the Hana Bank Vietnam Masters when he finished in joint 14th position. Secured his full playing rights at the Asian Tour’s Qualifying School in Malaysia when he claimed tied eighth place.
5. Terry Pilkadaris has been one of the most successful international players in recent times on the Asian Tour. After the heartbreaks of missing out his full playing privileges in 2002 and 2003 by the narrowest of margins, the Australian broke through in a big way when he won back-to-back titles at the Crowne Plaza Open and Sanya Open in China.
He also finished fourth in the Kolon Korean Open and was runner-up in the Taiwan Open and Volvo Masters of Asia, where he lost in a play-off to Jyoti Randhawa to finish a career high fifth on the Order of Merit.
