Asian Tour
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The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has a separate tour. It is administered from offices in Singapore.
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. 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. In 2005 the total prize fund was 20.215 million U.S. dollars (all purses are fixed in dollars apart from that of the Johnnie Walker Classic, which is fixed in British Pounds), compared to $12.3 million in 2004. However ten of the twelve purses of one million dollars or above are in events co-sanctioned by the European Tour, and European Tour players tend to collect most of the winnings in those tournaments. Prize funds in the Asian Tour's sole-sanctioned events range from $200,000 to $1,000,000, with the exception of the Singapore Open, which has a $4,000,000 purse. Asia's richest event, the $5 million HSBC Champions tournament, which was first played in November 2005, is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour but does not count towards the money list as any high placings by Asian Tour players would distort the money list. In 2006 prize money exceeded $24 million. The initial announcement of the 2007 schedule stated that there will be least 29 tournaments with at least US$26.5 million in prize money. Tour chairman Kyi Hla Han stated that it was hoped to increase the number of events to at least 30 and to negotiate some of the purses upwards. [1]
In 2006 the Asian Tour became the most prestigious men's tour on which a woman has made the half-way cut in recent times when Michelle Wie did so at the SK Telecom Open in South Korea. South Korea's Se Ri Pak did so on the Korean PGA Tour in 2003, but that tour is a feeder for the Asian Tour and does not offer World Ranking points. Babe Zaharias made a cut on the PGA Tour in 1945 when many male golfers were in the armed forces.
[edit] Schedule
The table below shows the 2007 schedule. It includes one special event which does not count towards the money list (the HSBC Champions) and two team events (the Royal Trophy and the Dynasty Cup). Prize funds shown in brackets do not count towards the money list. The Asian Tour's schedule is still evolving and it is likely that there will be mid-season announcements of new or rescheduled tournaments and amendments to prize funds, as there have been in recent seasons.
The number in brackets after each winner's name is the number of Asian Tour events he had won up to and including that tournament. This information is only shown for Asian Tour members.
| Dates | Tournament | Country | Prize fund (US$) | Winner | Ranking points[1] | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 18-21 | Pakistan Open | Pakistan | 300,000 |  Airil Rizman Zahari (1) |
7 (14) | |
| Jan 25-28 | Qatar Masters | Qatar | 2,200,000 |  Retief Goosen (N/A) |
24 (48) | Co-sanctioned by the European Tour |
| Feb 1-4 | Philippine Open | Philippines | 300,000 |  Frankie Minoza (1) |
7 (14) | |
| Feb 8-11 | Malaysian Open | Malaysia | 1,290,000 |  Peter Hedblom (N/A) |
13 (26) | Co-sanctioned by the European Tour |
| Feb 15-18 | Indonesia Open | Indonesia | 1,000,000 |  Mikko Ilonen (N/A) |
10 (20) | Co-sanctioned by the European Tour |
| Mar 1-4 | Johnnie Walker Classic | Varies (Thailand in 2007) | 2,440,000 | Anton Haig (2) |
20 (40) | Co-sanctioned by the European and Australasian tours |
| Mar 8-11 | Singapore Masters | Singapore | 1,100,000 |  Liang Wen-Chong (1) |
15 (30) | Co-sanctioned by the European Tour |
| Mar 15-18 | TCL Classic | China | 1,000,000 |  Chapchai Nirat (1) |
10 (20) | Co-sanctioned by the European Tour |
| Mar 22-25 | Motorola International Bintan | Indonesia | 350,000 |  Jason Knutzon (2) |
7 (14) | New tournament |
| Mar 27-28 | Open Championship International Qualifying Asia | Varies (Singapore in 2007) | N/A | N/A | 5 places at The Open Championship available | |
| Apr 12-15 | Volvo China Open | China | 2,000,000 | Co-sanctioned by the European Tour | ||
| Apr 19-22 | BMW Asian Open | China | 2,300,000 | Co-sanctioned by the European Tour | ||
| Apr 26-29 | Pine Valley Beijing Open | China | 500,000 | New tournament | ||
| May 3-6 | Maekyung Open | South Korea | 600,000 | |||
| May 17-20 | Macau Open | Macau | 300,000 | |||
| May 24-27 | SK Telecom Open | South Korea | 600,000 | |||
| May 31 - Jun 3 | Jakarta Masters | Indonesia | 500,000 | New tournament | ||
| June 14-17 | Bangkok Airways Open | Thailand | 300,000 | |||
| Jun 28 - Jul 1 | Crowne Plaza Open | Malaysia | 200,000 | |||
| Jul 5-8 | Johor Classic | Malaysia | 300,000 | New tournament | ||
| Jul 12-15 | Brunei Open | Brunei | 500,000 | |||
| Aug 9-12 | IRDA Johor Classic | Malaysia | 300,000 | New tournament | ||
| Aug 16-19 | Dynasty Cup | TBC | N/A | N/A | Team event, Japan versus Rest of Asia | |
| Aug 23-26 | Indonesian International Championship | Indonesia | 400,000 | New tournament | ||
| Sep 6-9 | Malaysian Masters | Malaysia | 300,000 | |||
| Sep 20-23 | Taiwan Open | Taiwan | 1,000,000 | |||
| Sep 27-30 | Mercuries Taiwan Masters | Taiwan | 500,000 | |||
| Oct 4-7 | Korea Open | South Korea | 750,000 | |||
| Oct 11-14 | Hero Honda Indian Open | India | 500,000 | |||
| Nov 1-4 | Singapore Open | Singapore | 4,000,000 | Richest sole-sanctioned event | ||
| Nov 8-11 | HSBC Champions | China | (5,000,000) | Co-sanctioned by the European, Australasian and Sunshine tours | ||
| Nov 15-18 | Hong Kong Open | Hong Kong, China | 2,000,000 | Co-sanctioned by the European Tour | ||
| Dec 6-9 | Cambodian Open | Cambodia | 300,000 | New tournament | ||
| Dec 7-10 | Volvo Masters of Asia | Thailand | 650,000 | Limited to top 60 on Order of Merit |
Source: [2]
[edit] Leading money winners by year
| Year | Leading player | Country | Earnings (US$) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Jeev Milkha Singh |  India |
591,884 |
| 2005 | Thaworn Wiratchant | Thailand |
510,122 |
| 2004 | Thongchai Jaidee | Thailand |
381,930 |
| 2003 | Arjun Atwal | India |
284,018 |
| 2002 | Jyoti Randhawa | India |
266,263 |
| 2001 | Thongchai Jaidee | Thailand |
353,060 |
| 2000 | Simon Dyson |  England |
282,370 |
| 1999 | Kyi Hla Han |  Myanmar |
204,210 |
| 1998 | Kang Wook-soon |  South Korea |
150,772 |
| 1997 | Mike Cunning |  United States |
170,619 |
| 1996 | Kang Wook-soon | South Korea |
183,737 |
| 1995 | Lin Keng-chi |  Taiwan |
177,856 |
[edit] Leading career money winners
The table below shows the leading money winners on the Asian Tour from 1995 to 17 December 2006. The official site has a top 100 list which also shows each player's winnings for the last six years. [3]
| Position | Player | Prize money (US$) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Thongchai Jaidee | 2,326,341 |
| 2. | Jyoti Randhawa | 1,851,464 |
| 3. | Thaworn Wiratchant | 1,604,818 |
| 4. | Prayad Marksaeng | 1,321,610 |
| 5. | Jeev Milka Singh | 1,286,827 |
| 6. | Simon Yates | 1,274,590 |
| 7. | Charlie Wi | 1,247,802 |
| 8. | Thammanoon Srirot | 1,122,461 |
| 9. | Kang Wook-soon | 1,087,906 |
| 10. | Arjun Atwal | 1,023,194 |
[edit] References
- ^ Each tournament is allocated a certain number of world ranking points, and initially this number is doubled up (see Official World Golf Rankings for more on this somewhat confusing system). Some publications use original points and others use doubled-up points, so both are given here for the sake of clarity.
