PGA Tour China to return with full schedule in 2018
The PGA Tour China will reappear with a full agenda in 2018 after this year’s edition was ditched, tour officials announced on Wednesday.
PGA Tour-China will reappear with a full agenda in 2018 after this year’s edition was ditched, tour officials announced on Wednesday. A four-year agreement between the PGA Tour and the China Golf Association was reached for the China tour to reemerge, but from now on, the prize money and the number of tournaments will increase.
“These will be brand new tournaments, providing players with more opportunity to participate, as well as to establish a route for China golfers to get through and into the world stage of golf,” said CGA president Zhang Xiaoning, at the HSBC Champions event on Wednesday. “The development of golf tournaments here is not only helping the tour itself, but also to help China develop better and more professional golfers and to raise the interest of our citizens to the sport of golf.”
PGA Tour-China 2018
A full schedule of tournaments will be featured in the upcoming series, each holding a prize of at least €192,000. It will launch in spring and will provide its top five money-winners with a membership for the Web.com Tour 2019. Qualifying tournaments for the series will be held at yet to be determined venues.
According to Ty Votaw, executive vice-president of the PGA Tour’s global business, the essence of the Tour-China is that the PGA Tour “offers namely a world-class brand, global credibility and Web.com Tour access that gives players a path to the PGA Tour. “In addition, we’ve seen several players who have played in China move to the Web.com Tour and then advance to the PGA Tour. It was thrilling to watch Zecheng Dou and Xinjun Zhang both realize their dreams by following this path all the way to the highest level of golf, the PGA Tour.”
A strong influence in developing golf in China
Despite uncertainty over the series after its initial three-year deal, the PGA Tour-China has had a strong influence on developing Chinese golfers. The China Tour has produced some of the best Asian golfers, such as Zhang Xinjun, Li Haotong and Dou Zecheng among the biggest names fashioned by this tour.