Asia Golf Circuit

This article is about the professional golf tour that started in 1962 and ran until 1999. For the tour that started in 1995, see Asian Tour.
Asia Golf Circuit
FormerlyFar East Circuit
SportGolf
Founded1961
First season1962
Ceased1999
CountriesBased in Asia
Most titlesOrder of Merit titles:
Taiwan Hsieh Yung-yo (4)
Taiwan Lu Hsi-chuen (4)
Tournament wins:
Taiwan Hsieh Yung-yo (13)
Related
competitions		Asian Tour
Ladies Asian Golf Tour

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.[1]

Leading players in the end of season standings were granted exemptions into major tournaments around the world, such as The Open Championship, the U.S. Open and the Memorial Tournament,[2][3][4] and in later years were rewarded with playing status on the PGA of Japan Tour.[5][6] Tournaments on the circuit also carried world ranking points between 1986, when the rankings were founded, and 1997.[7]

For much of its early history the Asia Golf Circuit was dominated by players from Taiwan, Japan and Australia. The circuit became popular with young American professionals during the 1970s through into the 1990s,[8][9] with future major champions Payne Stewart and Todd Hamilton having considerable success. In 1994 Asian players formed the Asian Professional Golfers Association and the following year started their own Asian PGA Tour, with twice the number of tournaments as the existing tour.[10] Over the next few years, the national opens steadily defected to the new tour and although some replacement tournaments were added, the Asia Golf Circuit declined until it eventually ceased operating some time after 1999.

  1. ^ Steel, Donald (1987). Golf Records, Facts and Champions. Guinness. pp. 153–155. ISBN 0851128475. Retrieved 16 December 2023 – via Archive.org.
  2. ^ "From nightmare to a dream end". The Straits Times. Singapore. 27 April 1982. p. 39. Retrieved 19 February 2020 – via National Library Board.
  3. ^ "Min-Nan the overall Asian champion". The Straits Times. Singapore. 18 April 1977. p. 16. Retrieved 19 February 2020 – via National Library Board.
  4. ^ "Shimada takes Dunlop title". The Business Times. Singapore. Reuter. 27 April 1981. p. 17 – via National Library Board.
  5. ^ O'Connor, Tim (24 Apr 1996). "Todd takes on Japanese PGA Tour after success on Asian Tour". National Post. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. p. 47. Retrieved 19 February 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Ｆ・ミノザ" [Frankie Miñoza] (in Japanese). Japan Golf Tour Organization. Retrieved 22 December 2023. ９０年、当時アジアサーキット最終戦だった『ダンロップオープン』に勝って総合優勝。以来、日本ツアーに定着した。 [In '90, he won the Dunlop Open, which was the final event of the Asian circuit at the time, and won the overall championship. Since then, he has become a fixture on the Japan tour.]
  7. ^ "How the ranking evolved". Official World Golf Ranking. Archived from the original on 21 May 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  8. ^ "Richer prizes to be won on Asian circuit". The Times. London, England. Reuter. 20 January 1978. p. 11. Retrieved 3 March 2020 – via The Times Digital Archive.
  9. ^ "PNG on Asian circuit". Papua New Guinea Post-courier. International, Australia. 30 April 1980. p. 40. Retrieved 20 February 2020 – via Trove.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference asiantour95 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).