Gordon with Isao Aoki and Gordon's son Thomas at the Senior British Open, 2003, played at Turnberry.

Desperately seeking heroes

Watching the recent Singapore Open on television was a timely reminder of observations made ten years ago when the Asian Tour's predecessor, the APGA Tour, was launched with great hoopla and fanfare, overwhelmed by an avalanche of dollars from a gullible corporate world - looks impressive but without young, charismatic, home-grown talent, the party will soon be over.

Indeed, within five years, after most of the initial sponsorship contracts had expired, it was. Admittedly, bearing the brunt of the 'Asian financial crisis', the fledgling tour was always going to struggle, and yet, the root cause of its ultimate demise and the continued cause for concern with the current Asian Tour, is the absence of indigenous star players.

Lest anyone in the organisation of professional sport forget, without the players who matter, and I mean those who attract and retain television audiences and on-site spectators, no amount of money will ever make the event a success, save in exceptional circumstances when national or collegiate pride is on the line in certain team sports. But golf is not, generally, a team sport despite the plethora of Ryder Cup copy-cats now on the calendar.

In recent years, there has been no shortage of outstanding young male amateur golfers in Asia. For various reasons, none achieve their full potential. In 2002, the best player at the World Amateur Team Championships was not one of the winning American team, or anyone from the golfing power-houses of England, Australia or Spain; no, it was Angelo Que from the Philippines. Personable, attractive and English-speaking, he should have been embraced by the Asian Tour and marketed on several levels for his own and the tour's benefit. Three years later and with a solitary victory on tour, Que appears destined for the ranks of 'journeyman'.

The issue is not unique to the Asian Tour. In Japan, the men's professional game has no star player appeal and because the women's tour does, spearheaded by Ai Miyazato (until the LPGA), viewing and attendance figures for the women's events far exceed those of the men's. However, a saviour for the men may be on the horizon, in the form of an exceptional 15 year-old boy called Ryota Ito. In six consecutive weeks in August and early September he made six consecutive 'cuts' on the Japan Tour, including a tie for sixth. He also made the cut last week. Obviously, there is a long road from pubescent phenomenon to national and international hero, and many hurdles on the way. The decision by the game's governing body in Japan, the JGA, not to select him for their four man team for the prestigious Nomura Cup, the bi-ennial amateur team championship played in Tokyo in September, was clear evidence that putting a ball into a hole in the fewest number of strokes is not all that will be required of a Japanese golfing hero.

In 1972, when the European Tour was taking its initial unsteady steps it had one potentially marketable figure in Tony Jacklin but he was committed to the PGA Tour in America. The ungainly Peter Oosterhuis tried to fill the gap for a while, but not until the arrival of Seve Ballesteros in 1976 did the European Tour begin its development. He was a marketing executive's dream package, externally, and, ironically, it was his personal shortcomings - a limited education and poor language skills - that ensured he would not stray too far from home and thus be the catalyst for engaging the corporate world and securing the tour's rapid growth.

Even the all-powerful, insular PGA Tour was stumbling along in a daze of dull mediocrity and diminishing viewing figures and general interest when 'The Chosen One', a.k.a. Tiger Woods, announced: 'Hello world', in August 1996. His immediate success as a professional combined with charisma, multi-ethnicity, intelligence, eloquence, athleticism, ambition and work-ethic provided Tim Finchem and his cohorts with a crucial and timely bargaining chip vis-?-vis the TV networks that enabled the PGA Tour to catapult themselves so far ahead of the rest of the world in financial terms that most of the fully exempt players on the PGA Tour money list are now US$ millionaires playing domestically; which renders even substantial appearance fees largely obsolete and makes overseas trips 'inconvenient'.

Look at the fiasco at Wentworth last month when a first prize on offer of US$1.8 million was not enough to attract (the injured Ernie Els and Retief Goosen excepted) any of the world's top ten players. Goodness, the field is made up of only sixteen players. Just showing up (all expenses paid) guarantees the player US$100,000 and world ranking points are available. Some executives at HSBC must be sick to the core. Then again, the US$10 million investment (yes, double the prize money is needed to cover a title sponsor's costs) is a small part only of a rather chunky promotional budget disbursed annually by HSBC worldwide.

Shipping out the likes of Goosen and Michael Campbell to China in August, presumably all expenses paid and probably with a fifty/fifty split (less commission) of an appearance fee that likely exceeded double the total event purse of US$300,000, was absurd. Perhaps the title sponsor considered it was good value on some level. More likely, upon reflection, there will be a sudden realisation that it was at the low end of the marketing mix value as no-one watched their event, no-one remembers who played or won and the expected spike in car sales didn't occur.

The European Tour has been 'global' for some time, and no doubt the China focus will keep evolving, so long as corporate interest prevails or until the PGA Tour curtails its season to end September thus releasing its over-compensated, pampered members to cash-in on what will become an extended 'silly season' in Asia. Tri-sanctioned events - PGA Tour, European Tour and Asian Tour - will likely follow, dominated by pre-paid American and European 'personalities' which translates into even less opportunity for the first real Asian superstar to emerge.

In the women's game (Japan aside), the issue of Asian superstars is more complex and hidden behind a veil of happiness and light that masquerades as the all-embracing LPGA Tour. Asian women, particularly Koreans, have done extremely well in this ultra-dominant theatre; indeed, a few have become recognisable international stars. And yet, their profiles pale beside home-grown stars such as Christie Kerr and Paula Creamer and the omnipotent Annika Sorenstam. The arrival of the bi-cultural, multi-lingual, personable and exceptional Michelle Wie, in professional guise, may change things. Certainly her handlers, whoever they may be, are thinking globally and anxious to exploit opportunities wherever they may arise - Japan Tour in November only the beginning. The LPGA Tour will expand further into Asia, alongside the PGA Tour and the European Tour, and limited resources will be reallocated; without local heroes, the Asian Tour will suffer materially.