Asian Tour eyes US, Europe and deepens LIV Golf ties, as International Series head says event will ‘grow and grow’
- Rahul Singh says talks in progress about holding future International Series events in North and Central America, and Europe
- Players from rival tours are welcome to join the ‘inclusive’ franchise being built alongside the LIV Golf League if they meet qualifying criteria, he says
The Asian Tour’s expansion will not be constrained by traditional or geographic boundaries as it deepens its ties with LIV Golf, and the head of its International Series confidently predicted it would “grow and grow”.
With 10 elevated tournaments taking players to England, Africa, as well as across Asia this year, Rahul Singh told a small gathering of reporters talks were already under way about holding future events in North and Central America, Europe and elsewhere.
And players from rival tours would be more than welcome to compete if they met qualifying criteria, with Singh keen to emphasise the “inclusive” nature of a “sports franchise” being built “in conjunction with and alongside the LIV Golf League”.
Global expansion was a given, Singh said, as acceptance within the game and a willingness to add tournaments grew.
On Thursday, the series teed off in Macau for the first time, with 19 LIV players joining the best of the Asian Tour, a week after LIV Golf Hong Kong.
The International Series season opener took place in Oman a week before the LIV event in Saudi Arabia, while the series’ July’s visit to Morocco dovetails with the LIV team event in Andalusia.
“This is the first year we made an active attempt to do that, and it’s working,” Singh said before the Macau event’s Pro-Am. “We saw what the field looked like in Oman, where we had over 20 of the [LIV] boys. We’re seeing it this week.
“We’ve specifically put our UK event into the date that it is because it’s the week following the men’s golf competition at the Paris Olympics. So, some of the players will already be in the region. And it’s the week before [LIV Golf] Greenbrier.
“Scheduling is going to be very important to the progression of the series.”
LIV already has a presence in the United States and Mexico, and with its Australia event a commercial and critical success in a country previously starved of access to the world’s best, officials see an opportunity for growth in multiple markets.
While the perceived wisdom within golf is for an eventual partnership between LIV and the PGA Tour, officials have privately suggested that is not as cut and dried as originally believed.
The decision to withdraw from seeking Official Golf World Ranking accreditation last week was just one of a number of items discussed at a board meeting, with the circuit’s direction also high on the list.
In the past, Asian Tour officials had suggested 14 tournaments would be the optimum number for the series and while Singh “wouldn’t put a number on it”, he said any decision would “be based on commercial viability, on partners, on destinations”.
“I think it’d be fair to say that we’re going to grow it so that its global footprint expands,” he said. “We’ll look to grow into the Western Hemisphere as opposed to add more tournaments in what is traditionally the Asian Tour region.
“We’re in active conversation with golf courses in various parts of the world. And from a scheduling perspective, obviously, we’d love to be able to combine those [LIV and IS] so that it becomes convenient, cost effective.
“Are we trying to go in and disrupt anyone else? No, we’re not. We’re building out our top tour, we’re building our series, we are building out the LIV and the IS association. And we’re not going to see any speed breakers on that in at least the coming few years.
“We may go into Europe, we may go into Central America, we may go into North America, we’ll see how that plays out. Like I said, we want to be global. So, no restrictions by [geographic] boundaries.”
There is evidence sponsors are seeing the potential too. Prize money has grown from US$10 million in the series’ first year in 2022, to more than US$20 million (HK$156 million) this time around, and this week’s event is being backed by Wynn Macau, a part of the Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts hotels and casinos group.
Singh called Wynn’s contribution to a tournament with US$2 million in prize money “substantial”, and said he hoped the hotel and casino felt it was getting “bang for its buck” with the likes of Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia lining up alongside rising stars in David Puig and Taichi Kho.
“The one thing I’m quite confident about saying is that we’re going to build on this, and we [Wynn and the Tour] are going to continue to support each other as the years go by,” Singh said.
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But while the series takes place in Macau, and will return to Hong Kong in November, the absence of any Asian Tour event in mainland China is telling.
The Volvo China Open was part of last year’s series, but has returned to the DP World Tour this season, and Singh acknowledged the country had “always been central” to the Asian circuit.
“Our discussions with the China Golf Association continue and as the series grows, we look forward to going back,” he said. “It’s always been an important market. We’re never going to ignore it, we’re just looking for the right opportunities with the association.”
