Turf Wars In Asia ... Garcia On
Shelf ... Ishikawa Unabashed
gio Garcia sprained his right wrist at last month’s
Dubai World Championship and doesn’t expect
to return to play until the European Tour’s Abu
Dhabi Championship Jan. 21-24, and even that’s
in doubt. “The hand is not well,” said the 29-year-
old. “I haven’t played for three weeks and I still feel
pain. It’s not healing as fast as we thought it would.
What’s clear is that even with the rest it’s not better
and we’re a little bit worried.”
Global Golf Post is closely monitoring a turf war
brewing in the golf world’s fast-growing Asia-Pacific
market between the established Asian Tour and the
upstart OneAsia Tour. Short of compromise, which
doesn’t seem imminent, there doesn’t appear to be
a quick or easy solution.
The backers of OneAsia, which made a splashy
debut in 2009 with a handful of million-dollar
tournaments, want to create a unified tour, stretching from India to New Zealand, that would rival the
European Tour and PGA Tour in both prize money
and stature. It has gained a footing in the region by
aligning itself with the PGA of Australia, the Korea
PGA and the China and Korean golf associations.
Of its 10 confirmed events for 2010, nine will take
place in those countries. The relationship between
OneAsia and the Asian Tour hasn’t been helped by
the defection of four former Asian Tour events to
OneAsia, including the Australian Open and PGA
Championship.
The Asian Tour, which rebuffed an offer to
be part of OneAsia during early talks as far back
as 2007, has fought back with reported threats of
reprisals for players who cross the line to play in
OneAsia events, though they appear to have little
bite. Still, the Asian Tour, with its membership in
the International Federation of PGA Tours and co-
sanctions with the European Tour and Japan Golf
Tour — the latter of which has stayed out of the
fray so far — remains an attractive, vigorous tour,
offering nearly $30 million in purses in 2010. Fur-
ther proof? Its 2010 qualifying school, which began
last week, attracted 445 players. Stay tuned.
Tiger Woods isn’t the only star player who is
missing in action at the start of the season. Ser-
With all the honors and awards raining down
on him after a breakout 2009 season, it must be
getting harder and harder for Ryo Ishikawa to play
the role of the “Bashful Prince.” Last season he
won four times and earned $1.9 million to lead the
Japan Golf Tour’s Order of Merit, becoming at 18
years, two months and 19 days the youngest ever to
capture a money title among the recognized major
tours. Seve Ballesteros (European Tour) and Aaron
Baddeley (Australasian Tour) were 19 when they
did so. Tiger Woods was 21 when he won his first
money crown.
It was an unhappy start to the New Year for
veteran PGA Tour caddie Greg Rita and his
family. According to firstcoasnews.com, three
armed thugs broke into Rita’s Jacksonville,
Fla., home on New Year’s Eve, while Rita, who
is battling brain cancer, his wife, Kelley, and
4-year-old son were sleeping. Kelley awoke
and one of the suspects slugged her over the
head with the butt of a gun and took her to
the living room, where the thieves stole thousands of dollars in jewelry and electronics.
The trio was later apprehended. Rita’s player
list has included Scott Hoch, Gil Morgan,
Curtis Strange, John Daly, Mark O’Meara and
David Duval.
captain of the victorious 1991 U.S. Ryder Cup
team, is recovering nicely and hitting golf balls
after suffering a pulmonary embolism that
hospitalized him before Christmas. “Doctors
said if the massive clot had moved another half
inch through my father’s lung, it would have
been lights out,” said his son Ron, who found his
father slumped on his knees when he walked
into his parents’ southern California home. Joey
Sindelar suffered a similar pulmonary embolism
last fall during the Charles Schwab Cup Championship and has made a complete recovery.
cyber Elin. EA plans to introduce “Tiger Woods
PGA Tour Online,” a browser-based golf game
developed in the past year that the company
described as a breakthrough experience.
Dave Stockton, a two-time winner of the PGA
Championship (1970, ’76) and captain of the
Electronic Arts Sports isn’t turning its back on
Tiger Woods, despite his transgressions. Well,
technically, it’s not the real Tiger the company
is promoting; it’s the cyber version. And as far
as we know, cyber Tiger has been faithful to
Sixty-year-old Tom Watson remains young at
heart, if nothing else. He will join top European
Tour players Feb. 4-7 for the Omega Dubai
Desert Classic. Watson, who lost the Open
Championship in a playoff with Stewart Cink at
Turnberry last July, hopes to surpass the feat
of Mark O’Meara, who won the event in 2004
at age 47. Among his rivals in Dubai will be
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, the defending
champion, who is only a third of Watson’s age.
Perhaps put on the front burner with an eye
toward the 2016 Olympics and three years
after it was first discussed, Scotland’s golf
movers and shakers have rallied their support
for a new program called “Fusion Scotland.”
The concept is to prevent talent being lost to
the game at its highest level due to a lack of
financial and logistical support. A panel would
select a handful of male and female players
playing at least on the Challenge Tour, Na-
tionwide Tour, Asian Tour, Ladies European
Tour, LPGA Tour or Futures Tour and provide
financial help, coaching and fitness, diet and
nutrition and sports psychology. In return, the
players, who would be allowed to retain 100
per cent of the prize money they earn for the
initial two years, would wear clothing supplied
by Fusion Scotland, carry sponsors’ branding
and act as its ambassadors.
