Asian Tour reaping rewards of Europe’s success

Reuters) - The Asian Tour, boasting record prize money and extra events for 2011, is flourishing thanks to an alliance with their European counterparts, the tour’s executive chairman said.

With European players, who have shown more willing to play in Asia than Americans, now occupying the top four positions in the world rankings, Asian fans, players and sponsors were benefiting, Kyi Hla Han explained.

World number one Martin Kaymer of Germany has signed up to compete in the co-sanctioned Malaysian Open next month, with number two Lee Westwood headlining the Asian Tour’s inaugural Indonesian Masters event the following week despite the first prize being only $118,875.

“It is great to see players like Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood coming to play over here, and I think that raises the profile of our events, our players,” Han told Reuters in an interview on Friday.

“They all understand that to be a complete player you have to play around the world and I think that helps them with their endorsements as I think the companies want them to be names in Asia as it is a market where the potential is huge.

“I think for the top level players, they see that it is a growing economy possibly for their endorsements and that their endorsement value rises up if they are better exposed in Asia.”

NO REGRETS

Han’s decision to align with the bigger European and U.S. PGA Tours had led to criticism from some, who believe he is giving away ownership of the Asian Tour and losing control of his bigger, more established events.

For the 2011 season, seven of the 25 confirmed events will be co-sanctioned with the European Tour while one will be a joint tournament with the U.S. PGA.

However, Han, dressed in his golfing attire sat behind a messy desk of paperwork in his modest office in Singapore, has no regrets over his decision.

“It has been positive for us, our alliance with the European tour is justified because now... six of the top 10 players are European so it has worked out advantageous to us. More world ranking points, more sponsors,” the former Asian Tour professional said.

“I feel that it was the right thing we did with our alignment with the European Tour. It’s great to see all these players playing and our players know to compete against them and this opportunity (of competing against them at home) is the best they can have.”

Also helping the Asian tour has been the long-standing decision to deal in U.S. Dollars. With Asian currencies booming in comparison to America, potential sponsors are getting more value for money.

“Yes possibly,” Han replied when asked if the dollars weakness has led to the Tour signing deals with sponsors that would have been out of reach five years ago.

“A lot of companies would do their budgets in a local currency so now they are thinking about it as it is better value so, it’s an advantage to get the tournaments.”