Many Korean male golfers are challenging the Asian Tour this season. It can be performed in parallel with the Korean stage, and the attractiveness of the Asian tour has increased as the ‘stake’ has increased due to the recent investment in Saudi Arabia. 메이저사이트
42 Korean players participated in the final qualifiers for the 2023 Asian Tour Q School, which was held at Lakeview GC near Hua Hin, Thailand from the 18th. Ham Ham-woo (29, photo), who has won two wins on the Korea Professional Golf (KPGA) Korean Tour, and Bae Yong-joon (22), who won the Rookie of the Year award last year, as well as domestic players such as Lee Su-min, Moon Do-yeop (32), and Cho Min-gyu (35), as well as the Japan Professional Golf Tour (JGTO) ), Hwang Jung-gon (31), who won four times, and Bae Sang-moon (37), who has played on the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour, also challenged. By country, Thailand has the most, with 34. A total of 141 Korean players participated from the first qualifying round.
In the meantime, the Asian Tour has not been popular due to the PGA Tour, DP World Tour (formerly European Tour), and JGTO. This is because the size of the prize money was not large even though they competed abroad. The total prize money per tournament held before 2022 was only around 1 million dollars (about 1.2 billion won). The prize money in Korea is not high, but there is no pressure to go abroad.
However, the status has changed since last year. The Asian Tour launched the International Series with investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Six tournaments were held last year with a total prize pool of 2 million to 2.5 million dollars. Four of them are scheduled by May this year, and more are expected to be added later. The PIF Saudi International, which will be held as the opening game next month, has a total prize money of 5 million dollars (approximately 6.1 billion won). The scale is comparable to that of most DP world tours.
Korean golfers are also giving high marks to the fact that they can maintain a sense of the game because the tournament is held in February and March when the Korean Tour is not held. Kim Bio (33), who recorded two victories in the first half of last year alone, said, “Working on the Asian Tour during the off-season has been a great help in maintaining a sense of the game.”