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Where EAST meets the Northwest
EAGLE EYE. Thai golfer Prayad Marksaeng, who has been a professional for 17 years, emerged from the long shadow of countryman Thongchai Jaidee to become Thailand’s top golfer in 2007. Marksaeng capped a solid season with an emotional victory at the Volvo Masters of Asia tournament in December. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
From The Asian Reporter, V18, #7 (February 12, 2008), page 9.
Asian tour standouts invited to 2008 Masters
By Mike Street
Special to The Asian Reporter
Tons of stories have emerged from the Asian golf scene of late, including the abundance of women’s talent I wrote about last year ("An avalanche of South Korean talent on the LPGA," AR, November 6, 2007). And K.J. Choi’s recent victory at the 2008 Sony Open extended his streak of PGA wins to four consecutive years, putting him in a tie with the active streaks of Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh, two other players with Asian roots.
But a recent announcement by the PGA likely escaped all but the most attentive golf fans. The U.S. professional tour extended special invitations to this year’s Masters tournament to three Asian players ranked 79th, 81st, and 91st in the world. Though relatively minor figures on the U.S. scene, these three golfers — Prayad Marksaeng, Jeev Milkha Singh, and Liang Wen-Chong — represent the best male golfers their countries have to offer. Each of these Asian stars has his own story of perseverance, comeback, or promising youth, and shows the PGA’s commitment to extending its brand to the fast-growing Asian market.
Thai golfer Prayad Marksaeng, who has been a professional for 17 years, emerged from the long shadow of countryman Thongchai Jaidee to become Thailand’s top golfer in 2007. Marksaeng capped a solid season with an emotional victory at the Volvo Masters of Asia tournament in December, after a year in which he’d finished in the top 10 six times. The victory vaulted Marksaeng to fifth on the Asian Tour, while Jaidee slipped to eighth, the first time since 2000 that he failed to finish in the top three. Jaidee, twice the top golfer on the Asian Tour and the all-time leader in Asian Tour earnings, must be frustrated to have the bid pass him by this season after another solid season playing on both the Asian and European Tours, but it’s hard to deny that Marksaeng had a better 2007.
Like Jaidee, Jeev Milkha Singh, the second invitee, has also played extensively on the European and Asian Tours. In 2006 Singh showed he’d finally shaken off the problems that have hounded him since 2000, when an injury set him back years in his development. After an impressive 1995 debut on the Asian Tour, when he finished in the top 10 six times in 11 tournaments entered, Singh became the first golfer from India to qualify for the European Tour in 1997. Since his injury, however, he struggled to recover his strength and form, playing in only a handful of Asian and European Tour events without a victory.
In his 2006 comeback, Singh took the top spot on the Asian Tour with four wins, and also finished 16th in the European Tour, where he won twice, including the season-ending Masters. His fantastic season brought him an invite to the 2007 PGA Masters, making him the first Indian to play in the prestigious tournament. If he can improve in this year’s Masters, Singh can go a long way toward establishing himself with PGA players the way he already has in the Asian and European Tours.
China’s best player, who is enjoying a meteoric rise to fame, was given the third invitation, and few could argue why. Liang Wen-Chong, who will turn 30 this year, outclassed all his competition in 2007 to become the best golfer not only in his native country, but also on the entire Asian Tour. Becoming the first Chinese golfer to win the Asian Tour crowned a season in which Liang had notched eight top-10 finishes, including one victory on the Asian Tour. His 2007 victory at the Singapore Masters made him only the second Chinese golfer to win a European Tour event in his first season with the European Tour. After steadily improving each of the past three seasons before taking the crown this year, Liang represents the future of Chinese golf, the biggest potential market in Asia for the PGA.
As a further signal of their strong interest in this region, the PGA invited these Asian golfers to the U.S. tour’s most storied venue, the Augusta Country Club. The course, designed by golf legend Bobby Jones, has hosted the Masters since 1934, and is the only course to always host the same tournament — the other three major tournaments rotate among America’s other top courses. Historic Augusta should be the perfect place for America to accustom itself to these new faces from the Asia Tour, the crest of a growing tide of transpacific golf talent.