Asian Tour set for record prize money in 2003
Asian Tour set for record prize money in 2003
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur
Record prize money of US$11.85 million will be on offer for the 2003 Asian PGA Tour, officials announced on Tuesday.
The season begins with this week's $833,000 Okinawa Open, the first Asian event to be joint-sanctioned with the Japan Tour, and ends almost 12 months later with the $500,000 Volvo Masters of Asia in Thailand from December 11-14.
For the fourth year in a row, the tour's flagship event will be the $1.6 million Johnnie Walker Classic, to be staged at Lake Karrinyup Golf Club in Perth, Australia from Feb. 13-16.
The Johnnie Walker Classic, which South Africa's Retief Goosen won by eight shots in January, is tri-sanctioned by the Asian PGA, European and Australasian Tours.
In 2003, the tournament will be sandwiched between two other events co-sanctioned by the European Tour -- the $900,000 Singapore Masters in late January and the $1.1 million Malaysian Open from Feb. 20-23.
In all, a minimum of 20 events will be staged in 14 countries on the 2003 Asian PGA Tour and total prize money is up on last year's $10.7 million.
"It's a season that promises so much," Ramlan Harun, the Asian Tour's executive director, said in a statement.
"The prize money is very lucrative but, more importantly, we have a wonderful spread of events that traverse the region. And we are extremely confident that more tournaments will be added to the schedule.
"We are currently in final negotiations with the relevant associations to bring on board the Thailand Open and Korean Open, plus the ROC PGA Championship, among others."
Meanwhile in Jacksonville, Florida, the group pushing for female members at Augusta National took its battle into cyberspace Tuesday with a Web site that vilifies corporations whose chief executives belong to the golf club.
"We think it is important for women to know that some of America's largest corporations maintain a double standard when it comes to sex discrimination," said Martha Burk, head of the National Council of Women's Organizations.
The site - www.augustadiscriminates.org - officially was to go online Tuesday night to coincide with Burk's appearance on HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel."
The main page, headlined "Hall of Hypocrisy," will display logos of corporations with ties to Augusta.
Each corporate link will show a photo of the chairman or CEO, the company's diversity statement if it has one, and the goods and services it provides. A headline proclaims that the company supports discrimination.