Asian Tour won't back Indonesia, Singapore
The Asian Tour announced late last night it will not sanction the Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia Open and Singapore Masters.
Asian Tour chief executive Louis Martin said it was not in a position to sanction the Indonesia Open as the event's promoter, Parallel Media Asia (PMA), had scheduled it against the Amby Valley Masters in India, which will make its debut on the Asian Tour from March 2-5. He said the tour has not been given any assurances on the sustainability of the Singapore Masters, also promoted by PMA, and thus will not sanction that event.
Martin said the Amby Valley Masters was announced along with its full 2006 Schedule in November last year and he expressed great disappointment with PMA's announcement on January 11 that the Indonesia Open would be sanctioned by the European Tour and held in the same week as the new Indian event.
PMA are also the promoters of the UBS Hong Kong Open.
Martin said the tour's tournament players committee was fully supportive of this decision. 'We announced the Amby Valley Masters in November and we are fully committed to make this event a success. All our members will play in this new tournament.
'It is unfortunate that the promoters of the Indonesia Open have opted to choose the same dates as our Indian event. Therefore, we have no other option but to not be involved with the Indonesia Open.
'We made an attempt to create a slot for Indonesia by postponing our Myanmar Open [February 23-26] but this has proven to be unsuccessful. As for the Singapore Masters, we have not received any guarantees of the event's sustainability nor do we know if there is a main sponsor for the event, which is scheduled to take place in six weeks' time. Both the Singapore Masters and Indonesia Open were never part of our 2006 Schedule and were only announced recently by the promoter.'
Martin said the Asian Tour would continue to have serious discussions with the European Tour in hope of finding a solution. 'We will attempt to use all avenues to maintain our working relationship with the European Tour.' The Singapore Masters, scheduled for March 9-12, is part of the European Tour.
