Here in Asia many of us love our golf and are currently starved of going to see the top stars play here, except once a year when the LPGA tour arrives in Singapore and Thailand.

 

Many top players came to compete in the Asian Tour’s Thailand Championship at Amata Springs in the good old days.

 

However, due to Covid and low finances, the Asian Tour has had to cancel a vast majority of tournaments over the past two years.

 

This left many of their players having to earn what they could on the Japanese or Korean tours or here on the All-Thailand Golf tour.

 

In stepped Greg Norman, who with the backing of Saudi funds, plonked US$300 Million on the table to enable the Asian Tour to run ten major new events a year for the next ten years.

 

Vietnam on the list

 

One is scheduled for Thailand this March and there are plans to visit Vietnam as well.

 

The huge appearance fees a very Hard to resist!

 

Their first joint venture was the Saudi International which previously had been a European Tour sanctioned tournament.

 

 

Harold Varner III an African American PGA Golfer won the event and pocketed a cool US$1Million plus appearance money for four days' work.

 

Since 2012 (10 yrs.) on the PGA Tour Harold earnt US$8,8million, but has never won on the tour.

 

Now we all know that the top stars do get appearance money over on the two main tours, and even the Asian Tour has also paid appearance money in the past.

 

US$15 Million for appearance fees!!!!!

 

However, what attracted a lot of top players was the fact that last week’s tournament not only had a prize pot of US$5million, which is high by any standards, but Greg Norman’s appearance fund to attract these players was a mighty US$15 Million.

 

During last week’s event, all players and their agents were approached to join this tour.

 

Phil Mickelson was offered US$100million!

 

Also, players like Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter have been offered massive sums to join this new tour.

 

They have said that at their stage in their careers it is extremely hard to turn down that sort of money.

 

They understand the feeling of many about taking money from a country that has significant human rights issues, however, they see golf as being nonpolitical.

 

Both may miss out on being a Ryder Cup captain as a result, but their priorities are to look after their families at their age.

 

Battle Lines drawn

 

Meanwhile, the battle lines between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour (formerly the European tour), and Saudi Arabia Golf are just beginning, and it may well change the way professional golf is played in the future.

 

Several PGA Tour stars including Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, and Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele signed up to compete in the Saudi International this weekend, which was won by PGA Tour player Harold Varner III.

 

But will the PGA Tour take a stronger action next time that allows them to even play?

 

The mighty PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is now facing pressure from two upstart rival golf leagues, namely the Asia Tour and the Mena Tour.

 

Saudi Oil money

 

Saudi Golf and Greg Norman’s new tour will have at the very least the total spend on player fees likely they are north of $100 million — a drop in the bucket for an organization that is partially funded by ARAMCO, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company with reported revenue of $229.9 billion in 2020.

 

That figure is sure to increase as the price of Brent Crude has spiked from under $50 a barrel to more than $80.

 

Last week, the presenting sponsor was SoftBank, a large Japanese conglomerate with tentacles in every big deal on the planet.

 

Add it up, and the firepower behind this golf event is overwhelming.

 

When Jay Monahan took over as commissioner of the PGA Tour in January 2017, he could never have envisioned that the PGA Tour would be under siege by not one but two separate groups early in his tenure.

 

Toss in the fact that the players want their expenses covered when the purses are at all-time highs, with $838 million up for grabs in official prize money and bonuses in 2022.

 

It must make the 51-year-old commissioner shake his head.

 

Which leaves the Saudis.

 

The Saudi-backed Asian Tour is fully capitalized, has a prominent face in Hall-of-Famer Greg Norman , and has a schedule that will attract players worldwide thanks to lavish appearance money and purses.

 

Wonder who will be in the field in Vietnam?

 

A certain Tiger likes money!!!!!

 

Join our 3 x a week Vietnam News, Travel and Expat information newsletter and keep up to date. https://aseannow.com/newsletter.php

 

I can tell you what's not right: the media telling players and people how to live.

 

It's also not right for professional golfer's associations to ban their players from taking part in an event.

Their members are professional golfers, their goal is to make money.

By taking part in a tournament, a professional golfer does not endorse the sponsor nor the organizing country.

 

What's clear is that Saudi & Emirates' money is flowing into professional golf.

 

The media should find a way to report on that in a non-divisive way and the players' associations should deal with it.

 

The European Tour's new name certainly rings as if it had been sold out.

Take the money while it is there, it won't be in 30-50 years' time when the world has converted to renewable energy. The Saudi courses will go back to sand.

 

There are only four majors that count in the minds of golfers, nobody is going to know or care who won in Abu Dhabi ten years from now. OTOH, a major winner becomes part of the game's history.