SURREY (England): If everything falls in place over the next couple of months, Asian Tour plans to be back in India in 2025, bringing one of its acclaimed International Series events to the country.

The new schedule of the Asian Tour was a topic of much discussion among players here at the International Series England at Foxhills Golf Club, but Tour officials said they were at least a couple of months away from any announcement.

When asked if Asian Tour’s version of ‘Elevated Events’ will finally make its debut in India, Rahul Singh, the Head of International Series, commented: “It is a possibility.

“We are in advanced stages of talks with a golf course and a sponsor, and we obviously do not want to comment on anything unless all contracts are signed.

“India will always be a priority market for us. We’ve had great tournaments, great partners, players from the country and players who like to visit India. There’s no question that we’re going to be looking at all possible avenues to try and bring in an IS tournament next year.

“Going forward, we want the International Series (IS) tournaments to be commercially viable and sustainable. Even though we have the backing of LIV Golf, we don’t want to go to new markets and fund the whole tournament ourselves. The good thing is that the IS events have worked really well so far and there is now a lot of interest from various countries.”

India remains a big market for the Asian Tour, especially with many pros from the country being members of the Tour (14 Indians featured in this week’s IS England). However, with the local Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) forming an association with the DP World Tour, there hasn’t been any Asian Tour event in India since the DGC Open presented by MasterCard in March last year.

The Asian Tour used to give India up to eight country exemptions, something that has been dramatically reduced now. In comparison, only one player – winner of the PGTI Order of Merit – gets a membership on the DP World Tour under the new arrangement.

“The membership from India forms quite a big part of the Asian Tour. We missed not having the DGC Open and the other events that we used to do before with Panasonic and other sponsors,” said Cho Minn Thant, the Commissioner of the Asian Tour.

“The Delhi Golf Club has always been a very recognisable and iconic venue on the Asian Tour. We love going to India and will make every effort to return there next year. But we are very clear that we are not going to go into these markets and start funding tournaments on our own and do it in an unsustainable way.”

With a proposed LIV Golf schedule out for 2025, it becomes a big part of the puzzle for Asian Tour. The Tour has always liked to give International Series dates closer to LIV tournaments and in countries in close proximity to the LIV venues. That way, they can attract several stars from the Saudi Arabia-backed league.

“LIV Golf is a very important part of our strategy. Obviously, they are the promoter of the Series, and we’d like to believe that they are happy with what we have delivered so far,” added Singh.

“They’re the contributors to this, and they’re continuing to push us to deliver world-class tournaments. The partnership with the Asian Tour is also a key part of their plans to provide more playing opportunities to their membership. We want the IS to be complementary to LIV Golf and the strategy has worked because we keep getting some amazing fields for our tournaments.

“And then you have LIV players like David (Puig) and Andy (Ogletree), who have benefited a lot from playing the IS events and banking Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points.”

Six remaining IS events will form an exciting closing stretch of seven tournaments on the Asian Tour, with the season-ending $5 million PIF Saudi International crowning the International Series Ranking winner, as well as the Asian Tour Order of Merit champion.

“Starting with the weather, to LIV Golf schedule, to the dates of the majors, to public holidays… various factors go into scheduling and we have faced some challenges towards the beginning of the season, but the second half has always been chock-a-block,” explained Cho.

“With so much at stake for the winner of the IS Rankings and the Asian Tour OoM, it is going to be an amazing finish to Asian Tour’s 2024 season.”

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