Xander Schauffele, the 2016-17 Rookie of the Year, epitomises the game’s facet best. “I have a very international background… my dad's half French, half German. My mom's Taiwanese, grew up in Japan. So, it's cool that golf has allowed me to start here in Malaysia, then Korea, then China. If you want to be one of the best players in the world, you have to be a global player. You have to collect fans in different countries and play well in different countries.”
Additionally, the PGA TOUR’s collaboration with other golf bodies including the Asian Tour, Korean PGA and China Golf Association have provided positive influences as well, as explained by India’s Anirban Lahiri.
“I think this is a great, great platform. A lot of players, of the 10 guys who qualified (from the Asian Tour for CIMB Classic), I think there's a whole bunch who could contend. I learned so much from my first two or three times that I played this event. It also got me a chance to gauge what the level of golf is and where I needed to take my golf and elevate to that level so that I could be full time on the PGA TOUR. For a lot of the young players, it will be the first step. But you never know where that path leads, so it's great,” said Lahiri, now a regular on the PGA TOUR.
Monahan is convinced the PGA TOUR’s footprint in Asia can further contribute towards the game’s growing popularity. “One of the six tenets to our mission statement is to grow the game, and any time we are actively growing, diversifying, developing the game, opening new markets, hopefully everybody that's involved in the game is benefitting,” he said.
Chuah Choo Chiang is Senior Director, Communications of the PGA TOUR and is based in TPC Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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