Last week PGA Tour Commissioner, Tim Finchem announced the establishment of a new professional golf tour in China. In partnership with the China Golf Association the PGA China Tour will begin operation in 2014 with 12 tournaments.
This is a huge win for the PGA Tour. China is a country of 1.4 billion people. The country is growing economically at a very rapid rate and its citizens’ disposable incomes are also increasing.
Of course they will want to play more golf and will need to buy golf clubs, golf balls, golf shoes, golf shirts and some Loudmouth pants with those extra yuan.
With golf as one of the sports contested in the 2016 Olympics, China wants to field a competitive team in Brazil. Greg Norman has even been named as an advisory coach for the Chinese National Golf Team.
The PGA Tour has already expanded its operations into South America with the Latinoamerican Tour and last year took over the Canadian Tour. The PGA China Tour will provide a feeder system to the Web.com Tour. It will award Web.com Tour memberships to its top money winners at the end of the season.
The new China tour will allow the top Chinese golfers a chance to gain valuable tournament experience and a way to progress to more lucrative professional golf tours.
China offers a vast untapped golf market for the golf industry. The PGA China Tour will help to grow the game of golf in China, as well as, all of Asia. It will also help young people see the game and get started playing at a young age.
In 20 years will we see Chinese golfers dominate PGA Tour leaderboards much like we see South Korean women dominate the LPGA today?