New golf Asian Tour CEO praises Europe deal

The Asian Tour's strategic tie-up with the European Tour is a "great option" which will create more tournaments and opportunities for regional golfers, the body's new CEO told AFP.

Josh Burack said the "strategic alliance", adopted after Asian players baulked at a proposed merger with the bigger tour, wasn't a second-best move for Asia.

The agreement was struck in July after Burack's predecessor Mike Kerr, who had backed a full merger of playing memberships and business interests, stepped down last December amid deep divisions over the move.

"The alliance is a partnership that commits us to working more together," Burack said in an interview at the $2 million Hong Kong Open, which is sanctioned by both tours.

"If the European tour puts a new tournament into Asia, they need to do it with us. That's very important because it ensures that we maintain half the field for our players. 

"And at the same time we work together to promote and market these new tournaments... We feel it's a great option for the Asian tour."

Last month the Asian Tour announced the first new tournament co-sanctioned with the European Tour, the Philippine Masters, which will take place from 2018 in a three-year deal.

Burack, who joined the Asian Tour in October, said it would be the first of several new events in the region.

"We will have at least one new tournament with the European Tour in 2017 as well in the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region," he said.

"We have ambitions to have more tournaments with them in the years ahead. Last year we had seven co-sanctioned tournaments with the European Tour and our joint ambition is to grow that." 

- Talks with PGA -

Even the European Tour is dwarfed by America's powerful PGA Tour, which has moved to establish an 'Asian swing' with three consecutive tournaments in the region from next year.

The CIMB Classic, the CJ Cup and the WGC-HSBC Champions have a combined prize money of nearly $26 million, but Burack said he didn't feel threatened by the PGA Tour.

He said he hoped to co-sanction the new CJ Cup, which will be in South Korea. The Asian Tour already co-sanctions the CIMB Classic and the WGC-HSBC Champions.

"We have discussions ongoing with the PGA Tour now, it's not agreed yet, but we're hopeful we'll be able to be a sanctioning party as well and that we'll have some players taking part in the CJ Cup," he said.

Burack said PGA Tour officials had assured him that the three-week swing was created purely for practical reasons, to make it worthwhile for US-based players to fly out to Asia.

"I think for them it was more a creation out of convenience rather than they have any ambition to do bigger things," he said.

"Their domestic business in the US is so mammoth it dwarfs what every one of us is doing in golf." 

Burack said the Asian Tour would use its independence to try to grow the game in the region, adding that at least 20 playing slots were reserved for players from the host country of each tournament. 

"We want to remain an independent organisation on behalf of our players," he said.

"We're a long way from having the regular commercial programme of the US PGA Tour or even the European Tour, but absolutely that's our ambition," Burack added.

"We are creating a new commercial team that I'm putting in place now and the ambition is that we're going to be actively looking for new tour partners as well as new sponsors to underwrite new tournaments."

Source: AFP