12 Key Questions for 2017

Mike Wilson starts his new column Bunker Mentality by looking into its crystal ball and asks a dozen intriguing questions facing the game of golf

8. Poor Timing All Round?

Congratulations to the European Tour for elevating the status of seven of its events to prize funds of US$7m or more, but, with not a single one of the seven in Asia, that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of the re-heated, recycled EurAsia alliance loudly trumpeted last year.

And it was, in hindsight, poor timing on the part of the normally surefooted BMW GolfSport; the erstwhile BMW Masters, which took place in Shanghai from 2012 until being dropped four-years later would have fitted the bill perfectly.

But, sadly, with the Volvo China Open and the Shenzhen International both underperforming and the Malaysian Open replaced by the amorphous Maybank Championship, it’s hard to see a logical candidate ready and able to take on the mantle.

Meanwhile, for such a respected horologist, one wonders about the strategic thinking at Rolex HQ in Geneva; whilst Asian economies are cooling down, they are nothing like as moribund as here in Europe, and it’s not so long ago that China was being touted as the global capital of Bling.

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