SINGAPORE - The "sleeping giant" that is golf's Asian Tour is set for a grand awakening as it welcomes a new partner in LIV Golf Investments and a US$200 million (S$269 million) commitment.
The newly-formed company's majority shareholder is Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which earlier in October took over English Premier League football club Newcastle United in a £300 million (S$556 million) deal.
The Asian Tour, which has been on hiatus for 18 months due to the pandemic, said on Friday (Oct 29) the deal with LIV will see it introduce a 10-event series to the circuit's schedule over the next 10 years, beginning from 2022.
The series will be in Asia, the Middle East and Europe and "has been designed to drive greater engagement amongst fans, attract new commercial interest and to help stabilise professional golf following a sustained period of worldwide disruption and uncertainty", added the Asian Tour.
The prospect of a Saudi-backed alternative professional golf tour - offering multi-million dollar guarantees to the game's biggest stars to play its circuit instead of the PGA and European Tours - first surfaced in early 2020.
Both the US-based PGA Tour and its European counterpart denounced such plans, which were seen as a direct threat to their organisations and bottomline.
LIV's newly-appointed chief executive is former world No. 1 Greg Norman, who in the early 1990s proposed a breakaway World Golf Tour that was eventually shelved when the PGA Tour created the World Golf Championships.
The Australian, 66, said on Friday: "This is only the beginning... I have been a staunch supporter and believer in playing and developing golf in Asia for more than four decades.
"The Asian Tour is a sleeping giant and we share an ambition to grow the series and unlock what we believe is significant untapped potential.
"We see our promotion of these new events as a vital first step in supporting emerging markets, creating a new platform, rich with playing opportunities that create valuable player pathways."
Before Covid-19 disrupted the 2020 season, the Asian Tour in 2019 had 24 events in 13 countries offering prize money of US$25 million.
The tie-up with LIV comes after the Asian Tour in September said it had agreed a 10-year partnership, starting next year, with Golf Saudi, the organiser of the US$5 million Saudi International. The tournament, previously on the European Tour, will now be sanctioned by the Asian Tour.
The Asian Tour has unveiled plans to resume in November with four tournaments scheduled in Thailand and Singapore in the coming months.
"This is the single biggest development in the history of the Asian Tour and a major milestone for professional golf," said its commissioner and chief executive officer Cho Minn Thant on the LIV agreement.
"The opportunity will secure unprecedented new playing opportunities, establish new player pathways, allow us to compete commercially with other sports, and enhance our social agenda.
"We are particularly excited at the prospect today's landmark announcement brings to the amateur game, providing new inspiration to aspiring players through a new level of top-flight professional competition in the region."
Singapore golfer Choo Tze Huang, currently playing on the Japan Challenge Tour, said the new series and investment is a timely boost for the Asian Tour.
He said: "Asian golf's profile is growing with Hideki Matsuyama winning the Masters and Zozo Championship, so this will definitely help Asian golf.
"The Asian Tour has the potential to be a very big tour, and I hope there will be more full-field Asian Tour events with bigger prize purses.
"I'm not sure about the number of spots at these marquee events yet, but I hope there will be more spots for Asian Tour members."
