PGA Tour moves in on Asia’s eastern promise

AMERICA’S PGA Tour has muscled in to become t he biggest player on t he golf scene in Asia after establishing a three-tournament swing worth nearly $26 million a long with a growing feeder circuit played in China.

Next October, the world’s richest golf tour will sanction three tournaments in South Korea, Malaysia and China with purses that will tempt many of the sport’s top players.

The PGA Tour is also opening an office in Tok yo, while the PGA Tour China, which helps put players on the road to securing American playing rights, is steadily expanding its scope.

Last week’s unveiling of t he $ 9.25 million CJ Cup in South Korea completes a t hree-event Asian swing, a lso including the $7 million CIMB Classic in Kuala Lumpur and the elite, $9.5 million WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.

It comes after the collapse of merger talks between the European Tour, the PGA’s closest rival, and the Asian Tour, who opted for a watered-down “strategic alliance” instead.

“Our players now have an opportunit y to come over and play three events,” Paul Johnson, PGA Tour executive v ice-president internationa l affairs, said during last week’s WGCHSBC Champions in Shanghai.

“Not a ll of them get into the WGCHSBC, so for those that don’t it is more attractive [to have] t wo events with no cut, so guaranteed FedEx Cup points.”

Along with the new office in Tokyo, the PGA Tour is also sanctioning its first tournament in Japan, the 2017 Japan Airlines Championships on the seniors’ tour.

The timing couldn’t have been better as last Sunday, Japan’s rising star Hideki Matsuyama dominated the world’s best players to become the first Asian to win a World Golf Championship at the WGC-HSBC Champions.