Battle of the fairways
Warring tours, court cases, conflicts of interest, rivals in bed with each other, threatened boycotts, players used as pawns, battles for TV rights - the gentleman's game of golf is anything but in Asia.
It's one big chess board with interested parties manoeuvring their pieces for a slice of the region's riches as the two major 'stakeholders' continue their stand-off - and central to it all is China.
As the Asian Tour prepares to open its forecast 26-28 event schedule next week in India, the divide between the tours has never been greater. The Asian Tour has strengthened its alliance with the powerful European Tour and also signed a 12-year television production and worldwide distribution deal with global giants IMG Media, with the promise of more tournaments and increased television exposure.
Meanwhile, rival OneAsia will launch its preliminary 13-tournament season next month, trumpeting each event as carrying at least US$1 million in prize money, including the flagship Volvo China Open in April. OneAsia's commercial partner is the Singapore-based World Sports Group, which bills itself as Asia's leading sports marketing, media and event management company. It is also the exclusive marketing partner of the Asian Football Confederation and in 2008 joined India's Sony Television network to secure the rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL), the officially sanctioned Twenty20 cricket league, for more than US$1 billion.
Having broken away from the Asian Tour and helped form the rival OneAsia Tour two years ago, the China Golf Association is restructuring the game on the mainland - but has only three tournaments on the OneAsia schedule this year. The VCO used to be in the Asian Tour stable and the hostility still runs deep with OneAsia being accused of stealing events and creating few new opportunities.
While OneAsia claims there is no war for control of the game, Asian Tour chief Kyi Hla Han has been scathing in his criticism of his former bed partners (both World Sport Group and OneAsia) and claims tournaments were 'forcibly' taken from his tour.
While the situation deteriorates with players forced to choose between the tours, and the market place in confusion about who controls what, the European and US PGA Tours are flexing their muscles. Industry observers fear they could wrest control of the region.