An unkind cut

At a time when men's golf in Asia is going through a huge upswing in terms of quality and the kind of talent that has been thrown up, Asian ladies professional golf has suffered a huge setback.

The 2004 season of the Ladies Asia Golf Circuit (LAGC) was recently cancelled due to the sudden withdrawal of its main sponsor "" the Kosaido Group from Japan.

Many leading players on world tours started out playing in Asia. Names include the likes of England's Laura Davies, Corinne Dibnah, Alison Nicholas and Dale Reid, Liselotte Neumann and Sofia Gronberg, Sophie Gustafson, India's Smriti Mehra, Korea's Park Se-ri, and Malaysia's Lim Siew Ai.

One of the big reasons why Asian golf took off in recent times was the availability of a good circuit with 18-20 tournaments with good prize money, which was close to $10 million last year.

A host of joint sanctioned events with European PGA and one with Japan raised the profile of the tour and brought in some of the biggest names. That helped in pulling better sponsors and ensuring good and wide publicity for the same sponsors.

Meanwhile the Ladies Pro Tour called Ladies Asia Golf Circuit (LAGC), which was inaugurated in 1983 by Japan's Koichi Kato and officially sanctioned by Asia Pacific Golf Confederation looked like taking off and providing a platform for the ladies in Asia.

It attracted hundreds of golfers from all continents and helped raised the standards of women professional golfers in Asia.

In some senses it also helped fuel great interest. Today there are a huge number of Korean and Japanese golfers in Ladies PGA and the numbers from Taiwan and Indonesia are also increasing.

The Asian circuit hosted several tournaments in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines and Taiwan. But off late, due to lack of additional local sponsorship many have pulled out, the prominent ones being Singapore and the Philippines. Singapore pulled out 10 years ago while Philippines only held its Open twice.

One reason being offered for Kosaido's withdrawal is that they have spent 20 years in women's golf and the man who backed it, Kosaido's owner is now into his 80s and plays less and less golf.

The withdrawal came in last year and despite efforts to find a new sponsor, none could be found.

Adding to the woes of the ladies is that Japanese and Korean companies, which have sponsored golf have faced economic crises in recent times. And ladies golf became the first to take a hit.

As of now, many of the National Ladies Open for pros have been informed of the withdrawal of Tour title sponsorship and they have been advised to look for sponsors themselves. With most associations not managing that, the Ladies Tour was recently cancelled for the year.

There is however speculation that some individual events may be held but as of now, there is no tour and that is indeed bad news for women pros in Asia.

The Malaysian Ladies Golf Association, despite its best efforts, failed to find a sponsor for the event. The Thailand Ladies Golfers Association, which approached no less than 20 potential sponsors, was also unsuccessful.

It was similar for the Philippines and Indonesia. Only Taiwan has been successful and will hold its annual event this year. But in the absence of a proper circuit, the tournament may not attract many well-known names.

Interestingly, the Taiwan Ladies Golf Tour will be staging two events this year.

The two events will both be played in January with prize funds of over $100,000 each.

The cost for each event was a total sum of $110,000 "" $30,000 for operational costs and $80,000 as prize money. This amount is becoming too big for companies to commit on a long-term basis. In the early years, the prize fund ranged from $30,000 to $45,000.

Maybe as the year wears along, some new sponsor will find it attractive and Asian Ladies Pro Tour will be swinging in action once again.