It does lack logic. Presumably the Open wants the strongest field possible. So why is it that someone who played consistently well over a whole year is ‘ranked’ behind a guy who has a hot week or day in some random event?

I hear you. In theory, the Order of Merit winner deserves a spot.

Moving right along, where do you think the Asian Tour is going to be in five years? And is that different from where you would like to be?

If we are talking about pure numbers, I’d like to see the tour have about 30 events annually. I’d like to see us co-sanctioning with Australia maybe three or four times a year. I’d like to continue growing in the Middle East. I’d like to see our minimum purses be at least $1m. I’d like to see the average purse around $2.5m.

But one thing I’d like to see change is the disparity between the main tour and the development tour. We have big events on the International Series and the Saudi International. A lot of the Korean events are over $1m. But on the development tour, if you don’t quite keep your card or get inside the top-30 at the qualifying school, you are playing $100,000 events. That’s too big a difference.

How about standard of play?

I’d like to see our guys regularly competing at majors. First, they have to get into them of course.

I know they are all things you’d like to see. But have you seen a difference during your tenure in terms of how good your best players are and how many are competitive elsewhere?

We see a lot of different winners on the Asia Tour now. And they come from all over. Our big events this year have been won by guys from Japan, America, Hong Kong. So, we are seeing a bigger variety of winners, which is exciting.

The best players are not that much different, but there are more of them now?

Exactly. Way more. The depth of our fields is so much deeper. I look back a few years and there were only a few potential winners. Now there are many. We have 25-30 guys who can win every week.

We are excited about being in the Middle East. We didn’t have that three or four years ago. We now have Qatar, Oman and Saudi. And there could be another coming up later this year, too. All of which is great for our brand awareness outside Asia.

Thant in action. PHOTO: Getty Images.

That means butting heads with the DP World Tour. But they have nothing to complain about given how often they have encroached on your territory.

Sure. The DP World Tour is in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ras Al-Khaimah. But there are other Arab countries. We are happy going to places like Egypt and Morocco. They have been really good for our tour.

Is there any sense of vindication on your part, given the way the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour are now talking with the Saudis, just as you did previously?

That was the first thing that came to mind when this potential merger was announced. It validated our decision to partner with the Saudis. We took the view that business is business. Their political issues are totally separate to sport. I see Neymar just signed for a Saudi football club. Others have gone recently, following Ronaldo. Henderson from Liverpool is one.

The Saudis are very much a part of world economics, and we were happy to embrace that fact. So yes, what is happening now does validate our decision from two-and-a-half-years ago.

It’s interesting you say that. One of the mistakes PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan made was to make his problems with LIV a moral issue. We can all change our minds in life, but not our morals. Doing that gave him nowhere to go.

It was unanimous on our board and within our membership to move forward with it. We are in a far better place as a result. We wouldn’t be anywhere close to where we are today had we not taken the money.

On a business level it would have been madness to walk away from that amount of cash.

Sure. The PGA Tour are clearly starting to realise they need to begin working with the Saudis. Many multi-national companies operate there. International hotel chains too. So, we did what we had to do in a business sense. We focused on that. it was never a moral decision.

Exactly how much difference have the Saudis made to your tour?

They have made a huge difference to the welfare of our members, which is what we are here for, after all. So, they are happy. They have had opportunities to qualify for LIV last year. It was the pilot year, but some did play there and earn life-changing money. That was so important after not having much income for two years because of Covid. Monumental for them.

I’m sure we’re not going to move on that trajectory every single year. We went from $1m events to $1.5m last year. We have $2m International Series events this year. We’ll keep going in that direction too. Given that, guys will be able to have lucrative careers on our tour. They won’t necessarily have to go to Europe to make a better living.

I spoke with David Drysdale earlier today. He lost his card in Europe last year, went through Asian Tour school and got his card. He has nothing but good things to say about your tour.

At this stage in his life, he and his wife/caddie are getting to see a bit of the world more intimately than before. That is nothing but good.

Can you see a time when leading amateurs will turn pro and see the Asian Tour as somewhere they want to play immediately?

Yes. A part of me worries about the Asian players when and if that happens. We have so many strong international players now. Guys like Andy Ogletree, who have come through the college system in the U.S, won big amateur events but not quite found their feet there. They have come here and found success straight away. We will see more of those guys, which will test the Asian players, especially guys who are maybe not full-time tour players. They might struggle against these former college stars.

If we suddenly become more attractive, we will get more South Africans, Australians and Americans coming over. The Thais are competitive. So are the Indians. We are finding others. But the veteran players who have just been keeping their cards are going to have a harder time.

Pro Am chatter with Phil Mickelson and Saudi Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan. PHOTO: Getty Images.

Are we going to see players coming from ‘unusual’ places?

We’ve always had a few of those. Bangladesh and Myanmar for example. There are guys coming out of Bhutan and Nepal now. They have been getting professional coaching. And many have gone to college in America. So, while they may be from obscure golfing nations, they have been educated and trained properly.

Let’s talk about you for a minute. You grew up in Australia, in Canberra specifically.

My parents and my sister still live in Australia. I wasn’t born there but I moved there aged four. I was educated there, all the way through college. I have so many good memories. It is a great place to grow up. Especially if you are into sport. I played cricket, soccer, some football. You name it, I did it.

Living in Asia now, the focus is so much on academia and less on sport. There are kids in Asia who don’t get exposed to too much sport. It’s easy to see how youngsters from elsewhere are dominant in sport. It is ingrained into their cultures. I’d like to see more Singaporeans and Malaysians getting into golf. In Asia, becoming a professional golfer is viewed as less than becoming an engineer or an architect. We have some cultural battles to fight.

Having said that, places like Korea are coming around. To be a pro golfer there is almost held as highly as being a doctor. That means something now. In other places, being a professional sportsperson is for those who couldn’t become a doctor or engineer. But that’s why we are seeing an increase in Korean players on our tour and others around the world.

The Asian Tour often gets described as a ‘sleeping giant.’ Is that fair? And if so, why has that been the case?

I don’t think we’ve quite awakened just yet. But we are almost there. The injection from Saudi has definitely increased awareness of our tour. Hopefully, corporates from places like Indonesia, China, Singapore and Malaysia will come on board as a result. Especially when it becomes clear that, more and more. Asian golfers are world-class. That’s been lacking over the last couple of decades.

I’ve always thought an opportunity was missed maybe 40 years ago, a time when so many of the best players in the world were not American. The likes of Ballesteros, Faldo, Woosnam, Lyle and Langer could have led the way into what could have been a viable alternative to the PGA Tour?

I agree. We are currently in a position where we see players rise, become potential world beaters but then leave the Asian Tour. Tom Kim is perfect example. I want guys like him to become household names but stay on the Asian Tour. We’re not quite there yet. But we’d like to see those guys come ‘home’ as often as possible. They are very much like family. My message would be ‘don’t forget where you came from.’

That’s true of many Europeans who live and play in the U.S. Their bodies are in America, but their hearts are still in Europe.

Exactly. I do hear from players who have gone to America that they love to be home in Asia. It is such a different atmosphere. Hopefully, they will happen more and more.

Let’s finish with another ‘five-year’ question. Where would you like the Asian Tour’s relationship with Australia to be in 2028?

I’d like to be working with them for sure. There is an opportunity for us to capitalise on what is happening to us. I think LIV Golf was huge in Australia. The local government got behind it. The crowds were huge.

There is clearly an appetite for pro golf, especially when Cam Smith is playing. Maybe we should be capitalising on him now. His career won’t last forever. Plus, not many people realise that the Asian Tour was one of the first places he played as a professional. He had one really great season on our tour and never looked back. So, we have that connection.

There have been others over the years. Payne Stewart. David Toms. David Lipsky. Kurt Kitayama. They all played in Asia. What we need to see is guys like that staying longer.