Golf is getting more global every day, and Commissioner Tim Finchem isn't going to let the PGA Tour miss out.
That's why 25 players from the U.S. circuit are in Kuala Lumpur this week to play in the inaugural CIMB Asia Pacific Classic Malaysia at the Mines Resort and Golf Club.
"With such tremendous growth for golf in the region, the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic provides an exciting presence for the PGA Tour in Malaysia and Southeast Asia," Finchem said. "It also presents a unique opportunity for our members to compete against the leading professionals from the region at an outstanding facility."
There also will be 10 players from the Asian Tour money list, most notably Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand, and five sponsor's exemptions, including Y.E. Yang, the 2009 PGA champion from South Korea, in the 40-player field.
The tournament is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the PGA Tour, which is making its first foray into Southeast Asia.
Placing the Asia Pacific Classic Malaysia this week on the schedule makes sense because several players in the field will be heading on to the WGC-HSBC Champions Tournament next week in Shanghai. And then there's the fact that golf is growing faster in Asia than any other place in the world.
Finchem always has tried to stay ahead of the game when it comes to expanding the PGA Tour's reach around the globe, as he did with the World Golf Championships.
Of course, many will argue that he actually stole Greg Norman's idea for a series of events that include the best players from around the planet. The commissioner claimed he had been thinking about such a series before the Great White Shark started talking about it.
Whatever, Finchem believes this is the future of the game, and he is positioning the PGA Tour to be part of it.
"I think that at some point in time, men's professional golf will become integrated globally," said Finchem, who threw his weight behind golf's successful bid to land a spot in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
"Now, what form that takes, whether it's a total integration, whether it's a FIFA-type, I don't know. One question is how the competition is organized. Another question is how the organizational structure behind it is organized. The first one is the key thing.
"I think it's a matter of time. Golf generally is a splintered sport, multi-organizational at every level. But there's movement. The last 15 years there's been a lot of movement. I would see that continuing to develop toward integration."
Much of the expansion into Asia obviously has to do with sponsorship and marketing. The PGA Tour has several international title sponsors, including SBS, Sony, Zurich, BMW, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Royal Bank of Canada and Accenture, and always is looking for more.
Of course, the American circuit is well behind the European PGA Tour, which holds tournaments in 20 countries spread over five continents.
In 2005, the Euro Tour held five events in China, more than in Scotland (four) and England (three). So Finchem has been consulting with George O'Grady, chief executive of the European Tour.
"We're not going to play a ton of tournaments over there, so it shouldn't be a problem," Finchem said. "George knows that. We're talking to him constantly about what our plan would be. My guess is it will result in us doing even more together."
This is the second consecutive year that Finchem has made a move in Asia that affected the PGA Tour. Last year, the HSBC Champions was placed under the World Golf Championships umbrella. Even though earnings from the tournament do not count as official money on the U.S. Tour, Phil Mickelson was credited with an official victory when he won the event last November.
Even though Mickelson, Tiger Woods and several other top players passed on the chance to play in the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic Malaysia, the event has drawn a relatively strong field. Among the 25 PGA Tour members who will play at the Mines are Ernie Els, Luke Donald, Adam Scott, Ryan Moore, Tim Clark, J.B Holmes, Retief Goosen, Rickie Fowler, K.J Choi, Robert Allenby, Ricky Barnes and Martin Laird.
Even though the major tours have yet to visit, Malaysia hasn't exactly been off the golf radar, and some players in the field have played in the Malaysian Open, including Charlie Wi, who was born in South Korea but grew up in Southern California.
Wi won that tournament in 2006 at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club, joining a list of champions that includes Vijay Singh of Fiji (1992 and 2001), Lee Westwood of England (1997), Steve Flesch (1996), Jeff Maggert (1989), Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe (1980) and Graham Marsh of Australia (1974 and 1975).
Noh Seung-yul, a 19-year-old from South Korea, in March became the latest winner of the Malaysian Open, which dates to 1962. Noh also finished second to Padraig Harrington in the Iskandar Johor Open two weeks ago.
Count him among game's highly touted youngsters, along with the likes of Fowler, Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Ryo Ishikawa of Japan, who instead of being Generation Next are proving to be Generation Now.
As the golf world is about to learn with its Asian invasion, there are more like Noh and Ishikawa on the way.
