The growing Asian talent pool and the financial clout in the region means the OneAsia Tour can provide a genuine rival to the successful European and USPGA Tours, the chief executive of the ambitious circuit said.
The tour opens its third season tomorrow at the Indonesia PGA Championship, one of 13 US$1 million events on a growing calendar, as it continues to build on its mission of providing an alternative playing field to their global counterparts.
OneAsia’s chief executive Ben Sellenger, a lawyer who has previously worked on his native Australian PGA Tour, said that the continent’s reliance on outside support was fast coming to an end.
“Asian golf historically has absolutely needed Europe and the US because either it needed the money coming out of European or American multinational companies that could support it, or it needed the golfing talent,” said Sellenger in downtown Singapore. “We are at a point in time now where there is a transition, both of those are changing. The emerging economies that make up Asia can sustain a world class golf tour right now and the talent that exists in Asia is better than ever before.”
“In time, you remove the need for those outside agents and you can actually have a stand-alone entity like Europe or the US here in Asia,” he said.
Sellenger’s passion for Asian golf is engaging and convincing, but he is just one of a number of observers who have long talked up the talent in the region.
South Korean Yang Yong-eun, the highest ranked Asian at No. 32 in the world, claimed the continent’s first major when he held off Tiger Woods to win the 2009 USPGA Championship, but elsewhere, the numbers suggest the talent remains raw.
Asia has just 12 players in the top-100 of the world rankings and though talented teenagers Ryo Ishikawa (44th) of Japan and South Korean Noh Seung-yul (68th) represent the bright future Sellenger can foresee, both play on rival tours.
However, as the Australian points out, the numbers of children learning the game in China alone and the extra prestige of golf becoming an Olympic sport means he may be close to the mark in his prediction of an Asian golden era on the course.
Sellenger also believes that if OneAsia can continue its growth to offer his goal of 25 events with a minimum of US$2 million in prize money each, Asia’s best players will flock to the circuit.
The tour will only visit Australia, Korea, China, Indonesia and Thailand this year, leaving plenty of room for expansion in the world’s most populous continent.
“We are an infant in terms of global golf, we have come a long way. We are at 13 tournaments now at a [US]$1 million or more, which is a fantastic achievement for us,” Sellenger said.
“The next step is to grow to that level where a lot of those established players who have chosen other pathways start to look back and think they can actually commit to home rather than being required, as they have always done, to move away. If we can provide a platform that is for enough money, then I believe these athletes will prefer to be at their home and play,” he said.
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