Asia has become a happy hunting ground for many golf stars who are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars — and in one case, millions — just to turn up.
While officials refuse to discuss figures, Colin Montgomerie reportedly pocketed $280 000 in fees at last week’s UBS Hong Kong Open — more than his $200 000 dollars for winning the event.
Tiger Woods left the HSBC Champions tournament with an unconfirmed two million dollars in fees, on top of his $800 000 for second place.
Retief Goosen and Michael Campbell supposedly got between $200 000 and $300 000 for headlining a weak field at the Volkswagon Masters-China.
KJ Choi, Thomas Bjorn and Miguel Angel Jimenez were also understood to have received hefty pay-outs at the Hong Kong Open — although Bjorn and Jimenez finished way off the pace.
According to the money men, it’s all part of the game.
”We can say very openly you have players who attend different kind of events with clients and of course these are professional players and they have to get paid for different kinds of services,” said Bjorne Waspe of UBS, title sponsor of the Hong Kong Open.
”You can’t expect players to attend dinner functions and evening functions for free. These are professional players so this is always a balance we have — and by the way it’s the same on the US Tour. If you want to have them for certain services you have to pay, they won’t do it for free.”
Asian Tour chief executive Louis Martin described the fees as a business deal that made sound financial sense.
”It’s not appearance money at all — it’s a business transaction to help the event be more entertaining,” said Martin.
”The stars of the game and the more popular players help to market the product so from a business point of view it’s a good decision.”
He dismissed suggestions that the money would be better spent developing the game at the grassroots level.
”The only way we can develop the grassroots level is by making the game more entertaining and more interesting and what I term the marquee players certainly help raise the level of exposure,” he said.
Martin said the Asian Tour was the fastest-growing in the world but lacked the prestige and prize money to attract top names. He expected the pay-outs to continue for years to come.
”There’s no question the marquee players help to create massive media exposure,” he said. ”As far as I’m concerned that’s why the corporates that are title-sponsoring an event want to ensure that they get value for their money.
”I don’t believe that business arrangement will stop. I do believe there’s a possibility that we could in years to come create some events that are in similar vein to the majors, where from a prestige point of view players want to play. But we’re a long way from that.”
Montgomerie, a regular visitor to the region this year, said it would help if there was an ”Asian swing” with all the big events held close together.
”This tournament next year is a week after the Shanghai [HSBC Champions] tournament and the Volvo China Open is just up the road so I think it would be good to have a swing down the eastern seaboard of Asia,” he said here.
”We have some great sponsors and some great courses and if all that’s in place, then of course the big-name players will come and play.”
The Asian Tour will host 32 events next year — including up to eight joint-sanctioned by the European Tour — with a record $23-million in prize money.
Last month’s Champions tournament was the richest Asia has seen with a five-million-dollar purse.
But with such a sum virtually par for the course on the US PGA Tour, players have little incentive to make the long-haul trip.
Next year’s Players Championship has a staggering eight million dollars in prize money.
”There are some events for six, seven, eight million dollars in America next year and we’re a long way from that,” said Martin.
”But Asia has the fastest-growing business, economy, everything in the world at the moment. Golf will feed off that and I think multinationals see the value of using golf to entertain their clients.” – Sapa-AFP