The series, backed by former world No 1 Greg Norman and LIV Golf Investments, will kick off in Thailand in March followed by visits to England, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, China, Singapore, and Hong Kong
Tuesday 1 February 2022 12:24, UK
The Asian Tour will stage a tournament in England for the first time in the latest chapter in golf's global power struggle.
As part of a 10-event International Series, the Centurion Club in Hertfordshire will host a $1.5m event from June 9-12, the week before the US Open and clashing with the DP World Tour's Scandinavian Mixed event.
Tournaments previously staged at Centurion Club include the Aramco Team Series event on the Ladies European Tour and two editions of Golf Sixes on the European Tour, now rebranded as the DP World Tour.
The announcement was made by former world No1 Greg Norman, who is chief executive of LIV Golf Investments, a company formed to run an expanding golf empire backed by $300m from the Saudi Arabian government's Private Investment Fund.
"We are setting the Asian Tour up as a powerful new force on the world golf stage," Norman said ahead of the Saudi International. "In my 40 years as a professional golfer, I've seen many parts of the world that have benefitted tremendously from golf and its growth and development.
"We now have the opportunity to do that in the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East with this incredible investment platform. Everyone benefits - professional players, amateurs, grassroots golf, fans, economies, communities, stakeholders. I've never been so optimistic about the future of the sport."
In what is the most significant development in the history of Asian golf and a boom for the global game, what is now to be known as The International Series will be integrated into the full 2022-23 Asian Tour schedule.
The series will kick off in Thailand from March 3-6 at Black Mountain Golf Club in Hua Hin, before the England-based event in June. The second half of the year will see stops in Korea, Vietnam, and Indonesia before heading to the Middle East and then culminating in China, Singapore, and Hong Kong
Each event will have a prize purses ranging from $1.5m to $2m, with the International Series adding to the Asian Tour's backbone of established events to comprise a 25-event season that will represent a record-breaking combined prize-fund.
