Swinging Asia forward

WHEN the Asian Tour - the official regional sanctioning body for professional golf in Asia - was formed in January 2004, one of its key roles was to expand and develop professional tournament golf in Asia. It staged a total of 22 tournaments that year offering prize money of US$12.3 million. Over the years, the prize money has increased significantly.

And each year has also seen new tournaments being included on the Tour's schedule, either renamed after title sponsors or being completely new additions. In 2015, the Asian Tour has welcomed five new events - the True Thailand Classic presented by Black Mountain, AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, Bashundhara Bangladesh Open, Vascory Classic in Kuala Lumpur and the Ho Tram Open in Vietnam. Add to that the various co-sanctioned events with the US PGA and European Tours and the total prize money to date for 2015 is between US$45 million and US$50 million.

There are six co-sanctioned events with the European Tour and one with the PGA Tour this year, and Asian Tour members have a history of doing well in these events. Since the co-sanctioning programme began, a total of 86 tournaments have been jointly staged by the Asian and European Tours offering a lucrative US$170 million in total prize money for the players. From September 2014 to February 2015, Asian Tour members won five tournaments that were co-sanctioned with the European Tour in succession, a feat which has never been achieved before in the history of the game. This included the victory by Korean-American David Lipsky who won the Omega European Masters where he became the first Asian Tour member to triumph in the Swiss showpiece since it became jointly sanctioned in 2009.