At the recent Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, several players were mulling over the effect the Saudi International Open’s decision to switch from the European Tour to the Asian Tour might have on them. Their primary concern was whether other European Tour events on that side of the world might be tempted to go down the same route.
Denmark’s Peter Hanson had strong feelings on the subject. “I don’t like the thought of that at all,” he said. “I have to think about what’s best for me; I like the European Tour the way it is. We just have to trust Mr Pelley to sort it out, if indeed there is anything more to this than just the Saudi week.”
Hanson’s faith in Mr Pelley – European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley – was not misplaced. It didn’t take Pelley long to answer Hanson’s prayers. First, he broke news that the European Tour will stage the Ras Al Khaimah Championship in the United Arab Emirates, scheduled for 3-6 February 2022, the week before the Qatar Masters.
It is the third of five consecutive events on the 2022 Middle East Swing following back-to-back Rolex Series events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Pelley topped things off with a reference to “another tournament in the region to be announced in due course.” In essence, quite a handful of good news, if not for everyone.
No one perhaps has a better feel for golf on different world tours than Scott Hend, a 48-year-old Australian who has won 10 times in Asia and three times on the European Tour besides playing on the PGA Tour in 2004 and 2005. Nothing, perhaps, sums up his ’round-the-world travels better than the tale of how his clubs started to pre-empt where he was going next this year. Following on from the French Open, for example, they went back and forth from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Copenhagen before a belated reunion with their owner for the Porsche European Open in Germany. (By then, Hend had missed the cut with a mishmash of unfamiliar clubs.)
“It’s only by developing that tour that the Asians are going to get the opportunities they need to advance to the world stage. ... It may mean fewer places in these events for European Tour players but, in my eyes, that’s fair enough.”
Scott Hend
Speaking at the Dunhill event, Hend said he was happy the Saudi International Open has left the European Tour to become an Asian Tour event.
“It’s great news and I can’t wait for it to happen,” he said. “Bring it on. Apart from the fact that there’s going to be more prize money, it’s good for all those Asian Tour players who have been woefully short of events over the last couple of years.”
Going on from there, Hend said he would have no objections whatsoever if more European Tour events staged in that part of the world were to come under the wing of the Asian Tour.
“It’s only by developing that tour that the Asians are going to get the opportunities they need to advance to the world stage,” he said. “They’ve had a tough time of it for too long. It may mean fewer places in these events for European Tour players but, in my eyes, that’s fair enough.”
(Hend did not mind admitting, incidentally, that he should be able to play in the Asian tournaments because he’s second on the Korean Order of Merit.)
Ross McGowan, a two-time European Tour winner, was not so sure. “I don’t really understand the ins and outs of what’s going on,” he said.
As for the possibility of other tournaments coming under the wing of the Asian Tour, he thought it improbable that Europe would lose the Dubai and Qatar weeks, “but you never know …
“Personally, I think that there should be more tournaments like the Dunhill Links where the top players from the Asian Tour, the Sunshine Tour and other circuits all get their fair share of invites,” McGowan added. “That has to be good from the point of view of helping the world game.”
England’s James Morrison, meanwhile, was adamant that things need to stay as they are: “The European Tour has played a large part in developing the Asian circuit, and it would be an absolute travesty if we were to lose the tournaments in which we’ve been involved. We’ve helped to make those tournaments what they are and they’ve been the heart of our tour. We’ve already lost a few events over there and enough is enough.
“I know the Asians have had a tough time of it in the last year or so but so have we. We’ve got our own problems and players like me have had massive pay cuts, what with the smaller purses, etc. Personally, I think we’ve been overly fair, if anything, to the Asian Tour players. We’ve been giving them plenty of the 50-50 fields which offer them the chance to move into the wider golfing world – and that’s what you would want for them.
“In fact, I think a lot of the smaller tours have good reason to be grateful to us.”
If players like Morrison are satisfied that all is well for now, the same does not necessarily apply to the PGA and European Tours, who are nowadays so closely intertwined through their strategic alliance. Since the last thing they would want is an all-powerful Asian Tour, they can only be wary of what might happen in the longer term.
Already, the PGA Tour has threatened not to grant releases to such as Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson “to fill up their wheelbarrows” with bundles of appearance money in the Saudi International. Presumably there is a lot going on behind the scenes that we do not yet know about.
Top: Scott Hend sees a positive opportunity for Asian players in a tour shift.
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