Joy of Golf: Corporate support is growing the game worldwide

Joy Chakravarty 08:40 05/11/2015
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  • Victor Dubuisson at Turkish Airlines Open.

    As fans, we have often railed against the blatant commercialisation of sport. However, in the last couple of months, I have come across two examples of how corporates have taken it upon themselves to change the face of a sport in their country.

    Last week I was at the Turkish Airlines Open, the first event of the European Tour’s Final Series, where it was amazing to see the extent of their support to golf in Turkey.

    And a few weeks ago, I was at inaugural Asia SPIAs that was organised by Sport360 in Manila, where I met the golf sponsorship team of Singha Corporation. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that the incredible journey of Thai golf is inextricably linked to the patronage of Singha and their golf-loving CEO, Santi Bhirombhakdi.

    You just have to ask any Thai player, starting from the veteran Bunchu Ruangkit to modern-day superstars like Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Thongchai Jaidee and they will tell you the enormous role played by Singha in their development in the game.

    Almost every Thai professional player has benefited from individual sponsorship from the company. They are either title sponsors, or co-sponsors, of every majors men’s and ladies golf tournaments in the country – professional or amateur. They sponsor the Thai amateur teams and have also funded the Singha Elite Golf Performance Centre, one of the most technologically advanced facilities available in Thailand.

    That’s not all, they have also built two golf courses and their Singha Park Khon Kaen Golf Club is one of the most unique courses in the world because of the ingenuous method in which they treat and use effluent water from their adjacent brewery.

    Each day, the Khon Kaen Brewery discharges 5,000 cubic metres of industrial water, which is used not only in the rice fields, but also fulfills the entire water requirement of the golf course, that also features nine lakes.

    But my favourite bit about Singha and golf was the manager and translator they provided to the travelling group of Thai professional players for many years in the 1990s and 2000s.

    I always thought that was such a sensible thing to do for a bunch of players, who were incredibly talented and featured regularly on the leaderboard, but were severely handicapped by their inability to speak English. It made their lives so much easier. I now see shades of Singha in Turkish Airlines.

    Obviously, they are well known for their sponsorship of the European Tour event, but they are also title sponsors of the Ladies European Tour and European Challenge Tour events in the country. They sponsor the Turkish national team, and have helped drive golf tourism in the country by introducing measures like free golf bags while flying with them.

    It’s an avalanche now

    What’s happening with golf around the world is just incredible right now.

    A lot has already been written about the average age of the top three ranked men in the world – Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy – being 25 years. And then there is Lydia Ko, the No. 1 female golfer in the world, who is 18. But that’s not where the invasion of these twentysomethings is stopping.

    The first three tournaments on the PGA Tour this season have seen an age-related record that was almost unthinkable a few years ago.

    Smashing barriers: Lydia Ko.

    Emiliano Grillo won the Frys. com Open aged 23 and Smylie Kaufman, also 23, followed him to the podium in the Shriners Hospital for Children Open. Then last week, at the CIMB Classic in Kuala Lumpur, 22-year-old Justin Thomas beat Adam Scott, who really must be feeling like a grizzly veteran at the age of 35.

    Big announcements in Dubai

    The European Tour are on the verge of making a few massive announcements during the DP World Tour Championship, which is sure to keep the eyes of the golf world on Dubai.

    The first will be about the future of the Final Series, which is bound to have a different look in 2016. It’s not the best kept secret, but BMW are not going to continue their sponsorship of the BMW Masters, which is going to be played next week in Shanghai.

    The Tour is also tweaking their membership policy and the mandatory number of events players need to play each season. Currently, it is 13, but the feeling is that number becomes difficult for players playing on both sides of the Atlantic, especially if they are not in the top-50 of the world rankings. And the third expected announcement is the status of the proposed merger with the Asian Tour.

    Stat of the Week

    30 – the age difference between the youngest and the oldest player in the WGC-HSBC Champions field this week. That would be the 21-year-old Matthew Fitzpatrick and the 51-year-old Miguel Angel Jimenez.

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