Asian Tour chief Kyi Hla Han says the current crop of young players bursting through the ranks are some of the best he has seen, predicting they will challenge for Major titles soon.
The executive chairman described 2009 as a fantastic year for Asian golf, which boded well for the future.
“It took Yang Yong-eun until he was 37 to win a Major — a long time,” he said yesterday, referring to the South Korean who became Asia’s first Major winner by claiming the PGA Championships last month.
“But what I see in the future is fantastic. We have had a lot of young winners on the Asian Tour this year,” he said.
“[India’s] Gaganjeet Bhullar is only 21, [Thailand’s] Chinnarat Phadungsil is only 20 and he has already won three events,” Kyi Hla Han said.
“Here in Singapore we have Quincy Quek. I see all over Asia a lot of good young players coming through, especially in India and Korea and China. And of course the Thais,” he said.
“I think the next three to five years are going to be great from a player’s point of view. I just need to make sure I look after them and give them as much opportunity as I can,” the Burmese said.
While it took people such as Yang, India’s Jeev Milkha Singh and Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee until they were in their mid-30s to break into the world top 50, Kyi Hla Han believes Asia’s current young guns will find fame much earlier.
“I think in the future Asian players are going to start becoming Major contenders before they are 30 and not after they are 30,” he said.
“Players like Jeev and Thongchai, they didn’t have as much opportunity when they were young as the players do now,” Kyi Hla Han said.
“The players are maturing earlier and winning at 20 or 21, not just learning the ropes,” he said. “I’d like to see them become major forces in world golf by their mid-20s and I’m very positive about that.”
He added that it was not just one or two young golfers knocking on the door.
“We don’t just have a few players, there are a number. We have about 20 players under 23 who have that potential,” he said. “We’ve never had that sort of potential before.”
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