While the world’s top golfers today play for an almost obscene US$45 million prize fund at the PGA Tour Championship in Atlanta, Georgia, many of their fellow pros in Asia would not have swung a club, or earned a cent, for six months.
Players from India to Australia have been idle since the Asian Tour was halted after the Malaysia Open on March 7, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have not even been able to practice.
They should have been teeing off next week at the Shinhan Donghae Open in South Korea, the first of three restart events, but, along with tournaments in Japan and Taiwan, it has been canceled, with little prospect of the circuit resuming before next year.
Photo: AFP
Asian Tour CEO and commissioner Cho Minn Thant said that he had hoped to stage 10 to 12 tournaments before the end of this year in the sort of bio-secure “bubbles” that have enabled the US, European and LPGA tours to resume.
“We’ve approached countries with the same protocols that the US, European tours and other sports have employed — testing, players kept in a bio-secure bubble,” Cho said.
“But we are bound by Asian countries who are not lifting the 14-day quarantine requirements,” he added.
A mini-swing in virus-ravaged India next month is also off and November’s Hong Kong Open, a European and Asian Tour event, is likely to move to January, tour insiders have said.
Next month’s flagship WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai this week was canceled as Asia lost its last remaining men’s international tournament scheduled this year, after PGA Tour events in South Korea and Japan were shifted to the US.
Just four Asian Tour events were completed before the shutdown, with only domestic circuits in countries such as Thailand and South Korea managing to restart. The CTBC Ladies Open last month was held in Taiwan, but was not open to foreign golfers.
Tournament professionals in Asia do not earn the multimillion dollar purses enjoyed by their counterparts in the US and Europe, leaving those in COVID-19 hotspots, such as India, with a bleak outlook.
“We have never stayed away from the game for so long,” India’s S.S.P. Chawrasia, a six-time winner on the Asian Tour, said from his home in Kolkata.
“I was about to travel to the UK for a few European Tour events a month back when I tested positive for COVID,” the 42-year-old said. “Though asymptomatic, my plans went haywire.”
Chawrasia has playing rights on the European Tour, and plans to play in two Portugal tournaments from next week, but others are desperate.
“Players who play full-time on the Asian Tour have tough times in store,” Chawrasia said.
“The condition of players on the Indian Tour is terrible. No earning. Nothing,” he said.
For many golfers, it is not feasible to get other employment.
“The job scenario is very grim,” Chawrasia said. “Knowledgeable people are losing jobs, so how can you expect sportspersons to join an office and start working?”
Australia’s Terry Pilkadaris tied for seventh at January’s Hong Kong Open, where he finished two shots behind US Ryder Cup star Tony Finau, earning US$21,200. His total prize money this year stands frozen at US$30,176.17.
Today, he is to be confined to his home watching on TV as Finau chases the US$15 million first prize at East Lake in Atlanta.
Should Finau finish 30th and last at the Tour Championship, he will still pocket US$395,000.
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