Soon after 27 year-old Pavit Tangkamolprasert raised the Venetian Macao Open trophy last Sunday, the Macau Sports Bureau confirmed next year’s event of the Asian Tour, a close source to the organisation told Business Daily.
“Even if this year’s greens were far from perfect, it is important to secure the event in next year’s calendar,” explains the source because the Asian Tour “has been facing some cancellations”.
In a response to Business Daily, the Sports Bureau explained it is currently in talks with the Asian Tour for the organisation of next year’s tournament and that it will announce the dates at a later stage after “making sure of the Asian Tour schedule for next year”.
The Sports Bureau also told this newspaper it has not yet inked any agreement with The Venetian to sponsor next year’s event remains in discussions with the group.
“After many years, many private enterprises are supportive of the event so we are confident that different enterprises will partner with us in the next year,” the Sports Bureau told Business Daily.
Created in 1998, the golf event in Macau offered a US$1.1 million (MOP8.8 million) prize this year. Mr. Tangkamolprasert defeated 2014 champion Anirban Lahiri in a playoff after both succeeded to birdie the last hole and finish with 16 under par. The winner took home US$198,000 and jumps from 91st to 12th on the Asian Tour Order of Merit.
Well-known players, like this year’s Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke, fell easy prey to the Asian players. The 48-year old from Northern Ireland didn’t make the cut after the first two days.
Ranked number 14 in the world, Branden Grace finished in a humble position (34th), the same as last year’s champion Scott Hend. English player Ian Poulter, who returned to golf after a four-month layoff due to injury, didn’t do much better, finishing in 28th.
Few spectators
The local Open, which has been increasing the amount of prize to maintain its competitiveness in the Asian calendar and seen some big names coming to Macau due to parallel agreements by sponsors, continues to attract almost nobody to the Macau Golf and Country Club.
While in other similar events several thousands watch the players – for example, the attendance of major tournaments in US and in Europe is counted by the tens of thousands – the Venetian Macao Open attracted “less than 100,” said a member of the organisation. “And most of them were members of the Golf Club and some families of the players”, he lamented.
On the website dedicated by the Sports Bureau to the event, it claims that “[the event] was first broadcast live in 2011 to over 200 countries [and] 850 million households worldwide”.
However, photos from the Open in 2015 were still not uploaded “which shows a bit of a lack of interest. It seems that there’s money in Macau to pay for the event so everyone’s happy, no matter what,” the same source told Business Daily.
When questioned about the lack of attendance at the event, the Sports Bureau told Business Daily the event was “drawing more and more spectators these few years” and that during weekdays attendance might look lower but at weekends a “bigger attendance was recorded”.
“We can’t say there was a thousand, but more and more people are coming to the event, to support and learn from the players,” the Sports Bureau told Business Daily.
Questioned on what measures it would take to increase attendance at the tournament, the Sports Bureau explained that it is trying “to attract more people to learn about golf” and wants to add more elements that could “make the whole family come to the event” turning “spectators into participants”.
This year, the Asian Tour “had more activities for kids and demonstration classes for university students”, the Sports Bureau concluded.
Alex Lee and Nelson Moura
