The Asian Tour has lost its flagship Masters of Asia event after sponsor Volvo pulled out, blaming the confusion surrounding golf in the region and political unrest in host country Thailand.

The season-ending tournament, first played in 2002, was not the richest on the Asian Tour but was seen as its premier event for Official World Golf Ranking purposes, with a minimum winner's point allocation set at 20.

Singaporean Lan Chih Bing was the defending champion.

Its demise is another blow to a Tour battling not just the global economic crisis but the emergence of the rival OneAsia Tour, which has taken over four events it used to run.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/14...ai-masters-golf

-- Bangkok Post 2009/05/13

"There is no single issue that has led us to take this decision -- more so a combination of factors," he said.

Hmmmm . . . . ???

The only Volvo they've sold recently is the 1:25th scale Volvo A25 dump truck sat on my desk.

im pretty sure the reason they have pulled out comes down to World Sports Group owning the rights/tv rights to many of the asian tour events and i believe W.S.G is now with oneasia so im sure you will see another 5 or 6 tournaments from the asiantour dissapearing this year alone, whether they go to oneasia or just get cancelled will be interesting. Will also be interesting to see if there is much of an asian tour left next year.

The Asian Tour has lost its flagship Masters of Asia event after sponsor Volvo pulled out, blaming the confusion surrounding golf in the region and political unrest in host country Thailand.

That a major business event was cancelled should be a serious concern for the Thai business community. That the event was cancelled in part due to recent political unrest in Thailand should be a red flag concern to the Thai business community and everyone in the Thai government. No one should be surprised when other businesses continue to follow suit.