Storied institutions like the European Tour must loosen up and adapt to golf's new Asian culture
European Tour players and officials must learn to like mobile phones and the norms of young fans in their expanded playground
It's the last bastion of class and decency, a pious beacon of integrity. Yes, the game of golf will save the world from the crass and callous intrusion of the great unwashed. Of course, it might die doing it, but that's the price a martyr often pays.
As the top players in Europe and Asia stroll into town this coming week to play at the UBS Hong Kong Open at Fanling, they unwittingly bring with them a game and sport that seems to be in its death throes. Over the past few years, the media has been rife with tales of golf's demise and the numbers seem to support it.
According to the National Golf Foundation in the US, the game has lost five million players in the last decade and 20 per cent of the existing 25 million golfers in the country are likely to quit in the next few years.
The outlook is not much better in Europe as new golf course construction has slowed. Even in the Gulf, where stupid money has distorted perspective for years, growth is marginal.
"Golf is bigger than the Ryder Cup with just the US and Europe," he said. "And the greatest expansion in the game right now is in Asia."
If the game is truly looking to grow, and any self-respecting business enterprise has to be looking to grow, then it will clearly have to be Asia. The European Tour certainly realises this and back in August it announced that it would officially be joining forces to combine its playing memberships and business dealings with the Asian Tour into a new super tour.
This is great news for golf fans in this continent, who can expect to see a cavalcade of top players on a regular basis out here. But it's even better news for the European Tour now that it has successfully tapped into the one region in the world with growth potential.
It will be interesting to see how the powers that be behind the European Tour behave not only this week in Hong Kong, but in the coming months. Since they began co-sanctioning events in Asia some 12 years ago, the Europeans have often been guilty of institutional arrogance towards their Asian kin.
Whether it has been unnecessary tweaks to golf courses or a lack of co-operation and respect for the people on the ground, it has been far from an equal merger. And now here they come again, sniffing for revenue under the age-old pretext of growing the game.
In fairness to the European Tour, this is a new regime and, for now at least, it deserves the benefit of the doubt. Canadian Keith Pelley took over as the new chief executive of the European Tour in August and says he has his eyes wide open. Pelley would do well to look at last week's Presidents Cup for guidance on how to do business in Asia.
A number of American players, and a few non-Asian internationals, commented on the plethora of cellphones and clicks while playing.
Of course, there are more cellphones than people in South Korea, so it's no surprise. And, Mr Pelley, if you ask Koreans or even mainland Chinese to give up their cellphones or golf, guaranteed golf will lose.
If you are uber-vigilant and ban them at events then prepare to play in front of empty galleries.
Besides, check out the Instagram accounts of these precious young players and they are rife with selfies. The fans out here are merely following their example and want to get in on the action.
Just because you bring golf to Asia does not mean you bring golf etiquette with it. Many of us out here love golf, respect its tradition and despise the narcissistic, selfie epidemic. But we are not your target demographic going forward.
You push the pious elitism of golf down this continent's throat at your own peril. While tradition is fantastic, a little bit of empathy mixed in with some respect for local culture goes a long way.
The truth is you need Asia, and its money, more than it needs you. Otherwise you would not be here.