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LAGT - The beginning of a new era

The Ladies Asian Golf Tour (LAGT) is a new concept launched in 2005, taking over where the previously known Kasaido Ladies Asian Golf Circuit left off in 2003. LAGT is more than just a tour, it has lofty aspirations for the development of Asian ladies golf locally and internationally. It has strong association with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, Asia Pacific Golf Confederation, the Ladies Professional Golf Association and the Ladies European Tour.

LAGT is headed by Rae-Vadee T. Suwan of Thailand, President; Aylwin Tai of Hong Kong, Chief Executive and Koichi Kato of Japan, Chief Commissioner. The 14-member associations of the Asia-Pacific Ladies Invitational Golf Team Championship for the prestigious Queen Sirikit Cup are in full support of the Tour’s goals, one of which is to build-up women Asian golfers into world-class players, by providing them both the venue and the opportunity to compete with the best in the region. In the process, amateur golfers will be able to hone further their golfing skills and develop their competitiveness giving them the confidence to participate in international tournaments.

Having gained enough tournament experience and built-up confidence, national team players who choose the career path of professional golf would have an easier process of transition from the amateur ranks. For example, in the inaugural tournament of the LAGT in 2005 which was held in Thailand, the top amateur from the Queen Sirikit Cup, Japan’s Shinobu Moromizato, was invited to play, and won the Amateur title. The benefit she gained from the experience has now made her one of the top rising professionals in Japan. Many of the present outstanding women golfers in the LPGA such as Karrie Webb of Australia, Pak Se Ri, Han Hee-won and Kim Mi-hyun of Korea, Ai Miyazato of Japan, Lim Siew Ai of Malaysia, Smriti Mehra of India, Jennifer Rosales and Dorothy Delasin of the Philippines, Lynette Brooky of New Zealand, Wei Yun Jye and Amy Hung of Chinese Taipei, were formerly national players who participated in the annual Queen Sirikit Cup Golf Team Championship. The players have now gotten ahead of their male Asian counterparts who still find it a difficult path to get a share of the lucrative men’s US Tour. This fact should serve as inspiration and impetus to other women to take up golf not only as a form of recreation, but as a career as well.

Another worthy undertaking that will benefit greatly from the success of the Ladies Asian Golf Tour is the Girls Junior Golf Programme. Members sign up to work with the Tour in ‘off site’ community activities that include golf clinics and school visits where potential junior golf talents can be discovered and given the opportunity to be trained under the programme. In all, the investments in the Ladies Asian Golf Tour will insure not only the continued growth and development of women's golf in Asia but will assure the preparedness and competitiveness of the future generation of women golfers in the region.

The LAGT schedule in 2006 will start off in February with five events to include Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Zhuhai and Macau in China. Other events are being planned for the later part of the year and may include a tournament in India.

The LAGT is an ambitious undertaking which aims to elevate, upgrade and enhance the status of Asian women golfers which in turn, will hopefully, elevate, upgrade and enhance the global status of all women golfers. The Ladies Asian Golf Tour is placed under the auspices of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) which shares a similar vision.

To ensure the success of such an undertaking requires the support from all corners in the region as well as the people who are in a position to contribute their role to help promote the future of women's golf.

Such is the charisma of golf that imbues its players with the heady combination of pleasure, fame and fortune; a charisma that has not been lost on the female species.

The number of women golfers has steadily increased in recent years as can be seen in the roster of participants in the Ladies World Cup tournaments, where greater interest in them is now being generated in the golfing audience.

In the Women’s World Cup in 2004, three Asian countries have taken top three places: Japan, Korea and the Philippines, bringing to eight, the number of Asian women who are in the top 30 in the LPGA. This situation has raised the credibility of Asian women players in the international golfing arena, so much so that not only golfing audiences, but tournament sponsors as well, are sitting up and taking notice of their crowd-drawing capability.

Asia, in recent years, has emerged as a key market for international companies, with Hongkong and Singapore battling for the title as the financial capital of Asia. China on the other hand, is being touted as the next economic power in the world, whereas Thailand and Malaysia are two of the most popular tourist destinations in Asia. All of these factors contribute to providing the ideal opportunity for the creation of the Ladies Asian Golf Tour (LAGT) that promises to be a lucrative undertaking for event sponsors.