Feature
Volvo China Open
AMERICAN ASIAN INVASION
Having sated itself with
season-long prize money
in approaching US$350m,
including the recently
completed FedEx Final Series
offering US$35m in prize and
bonus money, the avaricious
PGA TOUR this month turns
its attention to Asia, with
two events offering its
members a King’s Ransom
of nearly $20m, but in a
territory which, by rights, it
has no business being in.
32 G o l f P l u s
NOVEMBER
hen the PGA TOUR
shouts,
‘Jump,’
the
reaction of the rest of
men’s professional golf
circuits have traditionally
answered, ‘How high?’ And that’s the case
again this year when, announcing its all-new
2018 / 19 schedule, the European and Asian
Tours have little or no alternative but to
comply with its signi¿ cant knock-on effects.
The PGA TOUR’s unilateral decision
to bring forward the prestigious US$11m
Players Championship, widely regarded as
the, ‘Fifth unof¿ cial ‘Major,’ from May to
mid-March is arguably the least contentious
of the PGA TOUR rescheduling, which
retains the autumn-to-autumn cycle as
opposed to following the calendar year.
And
advancing
the
USPGA
Championship from August to mid-May,
2018
making it the second rather than the ¿ nal
‘Major’ of the season gives the European Tour
a serious headache, forcing its À agship event,
the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth
almost inevitably into an autumnal slot.
However, it is the season-concluding FedEx
Cup, this term a three-event denouement
rather than four, all starting and ¿ nishing in
August that could cause the greatest degree of
upheaval, the month of September yet to be
¿ lled, raising suspicions that the Ponte Vedra
Beach out¿ t could be planning a series of
offshore events, most probably in Asia.
Already, the die has been cast with the
PGA TOUR moving unilaterally into Asia,
¿ rst with the generously-funded CIMB
Classic, followed by the near US$10m CJ
Cup @ Nine Bridges in Korea, the former at
least co-sanctioned by the host Asian Tour,
the Korean showpiece solely for a limited