Will the PGA Tour lose it's power to Asia?

[jcjim]

Like many other things Asia will become the center of Golf...Is there anyone that believes it will not?

[No Mulligans]

Assuming you are talking about PGA tour golf, i.e where most PGA tournaments are held, where most of the majors are, and where players from all of the world travel to compete at the highest level...

No, Asia will not be the center of all that any time in the foreseeable future.

[RandallT]

I thought maybe there was an "L" missing from "PGA."

[krupa]

That's only because golfers in Asia are made in sweatshops by workers earning pennies an hour.  How can America compete!?

[kpaulhus]

I thought playing golf in Asia was more of an elitist thing than it is in the United States? I'm not 100% sure, but we have the first tee program which is trying to make golf accessible to everyone whether they can afford it or not.

I don't foresee Asia becoming the center of the PGA tour anytime soon.

[MrDC]

I don't see it happening, ever.

[mvmac]

Added a poll and added "Tour" to the title to avoid any confusion.

[bubble]

I believe asia will take a certain power on world rankings.

Yet the somewhat shorter asian average size is not best profile for golf probably.

This is different from PGA tour question thought.

My opinion :

The US have 3 majors out of 4 for mainly money reasons I think. Even when europe or others dominate world golf the majors stay in the USA (3) and the UK (1). This never changes.

This favors US players : When you play in a USA major they announce your name and country of origin. only for americans they announce the city as well. Then all the crowed is mostly US. no 12 hour plane and lag for US players. Totally unfair.

The PGA tournaments have the best prize money, and therefore attract the best players, and therefore more points for ranking are to win etc.etc. roll snow the ball grows.

Therefore the best players in the world only dream of going on the PGA tour for points yet they are on hostile territory in a way.

Europe's best golfers go play the PGA. Some still play europe and dubai a bit yet burn out from jet lag. Only stenson has won the Fedex and the race to dubai the same year. since he's burned out. and coming back 2 years later.

When US economy will burn form living on debt and surconsumption for comfort things will change unless like last time (2008) they sold out they're risk to others.

Asia really needs to stabilise a long lasting life style to grow on a good basis, not too fast and be stable. Then things will change.

[Zeph]

I can see Asia becoming really good at golf, maybe even have the best players in the world, but that the distance, culture and language barriers means we'll always have The PGA Tour and European Tour over here.

I don't know what you mean by "losing it's power", but if it's in terms of results, I wouldn't be shocked if it happened.

[Lihu]

IDK, I feel like US is going to remain a dominant Golfing environment.

In many (all), Asian countries only the wealthy can play golf. If this changes to the middle class and countries like China suddenly has a large influx of golfers from it's 350 million middle class citizens, it could very well exceed the United States in terms of the number of golfers. However, I also see those myriad of golfers coming to the US to play golf. This will just increase the number of golfers in the United States. It's also safer for people from Asia to play golf in America and Europe.

[newtogolf]

I don't see it, I think the US and Europe will maintain their domination in mens golf for quite some time.  The LPGA was in a bad place financially for a while and most American women placed their efforts elsewhere which opened the door for the Asian women to dominate.  Now that the LPGA is in a better position financially I expect that the US ladies will have more incentive to pursue a career in golf which could result in less Asians in the LPGA as well.

[Lihu]

I don't see it, I think the US and Europe will maintain their domination in mens golf for quite some time.  The LPGA was in a bad place financially for a while and most American women placed their efforts elsewhere which opened the door for the Asian women to dominate.  Now that the LPGA is in a better position financially I expect that the US ladies will have more incentive to pursue a career in golf which could result in less Asians in the LPGA as well.

It should more or less follow a kind of a law of statistics, the more golfers you have in any group of people it naturally follows that there will be more better golfers. If more Asians start playing golf seriously, then they will statistically start displacing people in both the PGA and continue to do so in the LPGA. Kind of a big if, as not that many Asians play golf as compared to Europeans or people of European heritage.

[newtogolf]

It should more or less follow a kind of a law of statistics, the more golfers you have in any group of people it naturally follows that there will be more better golfers. If more Asians start playing golf seriously, then they will statistically start displacing people in both the PGA and continue to do so in the LPGA. Kind of a big if, as not that many Asians play golf as compared to Europeans or people of European heritage.

Unless, you are just implying something else?

The statistics depend on how many Asian men and women have access to play golf outside the US compared to the number of female golfers from Europe and US.  I also believe that the female athletes from Europe and the US have physical attributes that should enable them to hit the ball further.  If we agree that distance is crucial to lower scoring then the influx of more American and European women should mean a higher percentage of them compete at the top levels.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

It should more or less follow a kind of a law of statistics, the more golfers you have in any group of people it naturally follows that there will be more better golfers. If more Asians start playing golf seriously, then they will statistically start displacing people in both the PGA and continue to do so in the LPGA. Kind of a big if, as not that many Asians play golf as compared to Europeans or people of European heritage.

Unless, you are just implying something else?

The statistics depend on how many Asian men and women have access to play golf outside the US compared to the number of female golfers from Europe and US.  I also believe that the female athletes from Europe and the US have physical attributes that should enable them to hit the ball further.  If we agree that distance is crucial to lower scoring then the influx of more American and European women should mean a higher percentage of them compete at the top levels.

Personally, I don't see any difference in potential based upon ethnicity or race, but rather nutrition and exploitation of ones athletic potential. In answer to the OP, no, I don't see any one group being dominant.

[rkim291968]

I thought maybe there was an "L" missing from "PGA."

Ditto.

[jbishop15]

The statistics depend on how many Asian men and women have access to play golf outside the US compared to the number of female golfers from Europe and US.  I also believe that the female athletes from Europe and the US have physical attributes that should enable them to hit the ball further.  If we agree that distance is crucial to lower scoring then the influx of more American and European women should mean a higher percentage of them compete at the top levels.

I don't think this is true.

Personally, I don't see any difference in potential based upon ethnicity or race, but rather nutrition and exploitation of ones athletic potential. In answer to the OP, no, I don't see any one group being dominant.

This is definitely true.

All things being equal, Asia would have an advantage because of sheer force of numbers. The question is, though, do they have the infrastructure: you don't have to look far for an example of a place that has a large population (the US) and still are mediocre at a sport (soccer). I voted yes, because I think they are rapidly improving their infrastructure in that regard, but it's possible still that they will not.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by newtogolf

The statistics depend on how many Asian men and women have access to play golf outside the US compared to the number of female golfers from Europe and US.  I also believe that the female athletes from Europe and the US have physical attributes that should enable them to hit the ball further.  If we agree that distance is crucial to lower scoring then the influx of more American and European women should mean a higher percentage of them compete at the top levels.

I don't think this is true.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

Personally, I don't see any difference in potential based upon ethnicity or race, but rather nutrition and exploitation of ones athletic potential. In answer to the OP, no, I don't see any one group being dominant.

This is definitely true.

All things being equal, Asia would have an advantage because of sheer force of numbers. The question is, though, do they have the infrastructure: you don't have to look far for an example of a place that has a large population (the US) and still are mediocre at a sport (soccer). I voted yes, because I think they are rapidly improving their infrastructure in that regard, but it's possible still that they will not.

Total agreement, it could go either way. . .I'm hoping it will take off in Asia and increase the total number of golfers in the world.

[No Mulligans]

It seems that many of you are discussing if citizens of Asian countries will dominate the PGA tour.  That was not the question asked.

The question asked:  Will the PGA Tour lose it's power to Asia?