Professional golf tours are the means by which otherwise unconnected professional golf tournaments are organised into a regular schedule. There are separate tours for men and women with each tour being based in a specific geographical region, although some tours may hold tournaments in other parts of the world.
The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on the tour count for World Golf Ranking points.
The World Golf Championships (WGC) are a group of annual professional golf tournaments created by the International Federation of PGA Tours as a means of gathering the best players in the world together more frequently than the pre-existing four major championships. All WGC tournaments are official money events on the PGA Tour and the European Tour, and officially sanctioned by the Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour, Sunshine Tour, and PGA Tour of Australasia.
The PGA Tour of Australasia, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia, is a professional golf tour for men, owned and operated by the PGA of Australia. Official events on the tour count for World Golf Ranking points. The tour is recognised as being founded in 1973 when the PGA of Australia instituted an Order of Merit. Despite always including at least one tournament in New Zealand, the tour was known as the PGA Tour of Australia until it adopted its current name in 1991 following the inclusion of three events in Asia.
The Johnnie Walker Classic was a European Tour golf tournament which was played in the Asia-Pacific region. Johnnie Walker is a brand name and the owners have a long history of tournament sponsorship. They also sponsored the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles which was a European Tour event played in Scotland.
Zhang Lianwei is a Chinese professional golfer.
The Hong Kong Open is a golf tournament which is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the European Tour. It was founded in 1959 and in 1962 was one of the five tournaments that made up the inaugural Far East Circuit, later known as the Asia Golf Circuit. It remained part of the circuit until 1996, before joining the Asian Tour, then known as the Omega Tour, in 1997. It became co-sanctioned by the European Tour in 2001, as part of the 2002 season.
The WGC-HSBC Champions is a professional golf tournament, held annually in China. Inaugurated in 2005, the first seven editions were played at the Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai, then moved to the Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen for a single year in 2012. It returned to Sheshan Golf Club in 2013.
The Volvo China Open is a men's golf tournament that has been held annually in China since 1995. The event is organised by the China Golf Association and has been co-sanctioned by the European Tour since 2004. It has also featured as part of the Asian Tour, the OneAsia Tour, the China Tour and the Asia Golf Circuit.
The TCL Classic was a men's professional golf tournament which was played on a course designed by American Robert Trent Jones, Jr. at Yalong Bay Golf Club in Sanya on Hainan Island, People's Republic of China four times between 2002 and 2007. The first tournament was held at Haiyi Golf Club in Dongguan on Guangdong, China, in 2002. It was the first tournament sponsored by the Chinese company TCL Corporation.
The Singapore Masters was an annual men's professional golf tournament which was played in Singapore from 2001 to 2007. It was co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the European Tour, and was one of many European Tour events established in East Asia since the early 1990s.
The BMW Asian Open was a men's professional golf tournament that was co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the European Tour. The event was founded in 2001, as part of the European Tour's drive to expand into Asia, and China in particular.
The 2006 European Tour was the 35th golf season since the European Tour officially began in 1972.
The OneAsia Tour was a men's professional golf tour based in the Asia-Pacific region. The tour was founded in 2009 as a joint venture between the PGA Tour of Australasia, the China Golf Association, the Korean Golf Association and the Korean PGA. The Japan Golf Tour was invited to participate in the project in 2012 and has co-sanctioned the Indonesia Open, Indonesia PGA Championship and Thailand Open. OneAsia was seen as a rival to the longer established Asian Tour, with which it had poor relations. From 2010 to 2017, the OneAsia Tour had world ranking status in its own right.
Sheshan Golf Club is the first premier private golf club in Shanghai, China. Founded in 2004, the 18 hole golf course plays to a par of 72 and is designed by Nelson and Haworth Design, and spans over 7,266 yards. Every year, the club plays host to the WGC-HSBC Champions, and is currently the only club to host the Championship. Sheshan Golf Club was awarded the Best Golf Course in China by Golf Digest in 2013 and currently tops of the list of Top Clubs in China by Golf Magazine.
Golf in China is a growing industry, with numerous golf courses being established, especially in the province of Hainan. In 2011, there were around 358,000 core players among the Chinese population, with a growth rate of 7.5%, and that figure was projected to grow to about 20 million by 2020. For the general public, golf is considered to be prohibitively expensive. However, it is seen as the top recreational sport for businesspeople and officials.
The BMW Masters was a golf tournament played annually at Lake Malaren Golf Club, in Luodian, Shanghai, China. The tournament began in 2011 and became a European Tour event in 2012. It was dropped from the European Tour in 2016.
Wu Ashun is a Chinese professional golfer. He has won four times on the European Tour and twice on the Japan Golf Tour.
The 2020–21–22 Asian Tour was the 26th season of the modern Asian Tour, the main men's professional golf tour in Asia excluding Japan, since it was established in 1995.
The Asia Golf Circuit was the principal men's professional golf tour in Southeast Asia from the early 1960s through to the mid-late 1990s. The tour was founded in 1961 as the Far East Circuit. The first series of five tournaments was held in 1962 and consisted of the national open championships of the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, plus a final tournament held in Japan. The tour gradually grew over the subsequent years, eventually becoming a regular ten tournament circuit in 1974.
Kim Felton 
