Dear fans, players, and partners of the Asian Tour,

As the curtain comes down on 2024, I look back on the season with a great sense of satisfaction.

In a year that has taken us through Asia to the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and back, we were able to complete 21 events on the Asian Tour along with 12 on the Asian Development Tour (ADT).

We handled sandstorms, thunderstorms, typhoons, thick fog, strong winds, and extreme heat. There were also countless weather delays, as well as last minute shotgun starts to complete events. It was very challenging to say the least, but as a collective we took it all in our stride and I would like to thank all of you for playing your part in the 20^th season on the Asian Tour.

Of course, it was a frenetic second half of the year that came down to an incredibly entertaining and enthralling conclusion.

Special congratulations go to John Catlin for winning the Asian Tour Order of Merit (OOM) and The Kyi Hla Han Award for Player of the Year; Itthipat Buranantanyarat for clinching the ADT OOM with an emphatic victory at the Aramco Invitational; and Max Lee for his breakthrough year, highlighted by his stoic performance at the LIV Golf Promotions event to grab a LIV Golf League spot for 2025.

LIV Golf Promotions winner Lee Chieh-po. Picture by Montana Pritchard/LIV Golf.

The competition was intense throughout the year with Ben Campbell and Richard T. Lee making late charges plus Peter Uihlein and Suteepat Prateeptienchai claiming multiple titles, along with some fine results by MJ Maguire.

On the ADT we also saw some standout performances from Ahmad Baig and Rahil Gangjee, and a host of exciting new talent who gained promotion to the Asian Tour.

I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome our new members who qualified for the 2025 Asian Tour season at the recently completed Qualifying School in Hua Hin. It is always nice to see new faces work their way onto the Tour as well as some familiar ones making a return.

Big shout outs must also go to Stefano Mazzoli, who graduated from the school’s class of 2024, and won this season’s Rookie of the Year Award; the Black Mountain Championship, for being voted Tournament of the Year; the Link Hong Kong Open, winner of The International Series Tournament of the Year; and Al Mouj Golf, venue for the International Series Oman, for retaining the Player’s Course of the Year accolade.

Our Tour is becoming more recognisable and our wealth of nationalities, personalities and destinations is unlike any other Tour in the world. It is important for our Tour to continue to capitalise on the momentum from the last two seasons and showcase our immense depth of talent and diversity to new audiences.

Rookie of the Year Stefano Mazzoli. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

2024 saw the launch of the Tour’s “Time to Rise” campaign where we have made good progress across the website, app, social media and events. Many of our members embraced the opportunity to cross promote with their own social media channels. It is incredibly important that we continue to work hand in hand with our fans, players, sponsors and promoters in order to expand our community outreach and develop initiatives to increase our audience.

There is no doubt that 2024 was our season of transition and 2025 will be our year of growth. In addition to focusing on continued digital development, the main focus will be the generation of new business and the expansion of our commercial side.

The 2025 season will soon be upon us with a return to the Philippines for the Philippine Open at Manila Southwoods, then the following week the International Series India presented by DLF will make its debut on the Asian Tour at a venue that has the reputation of being one of the toughest tests of golf in the region. One of our favourite events– the New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sports and the second edition of the International Series Macau presented by Wynn round out the early months of the new year.

We are working on confirmations for several events in Q2 before we move into a packed second half of the year from August through to December as usual. We will see some rotation in The International Series venues this year with more of an Asian focus which leads us to the Middle East for what has become the traditional culmination of the season. We are projected to see growth in the number of events from this year on both the Asian Tour and ADT with some exciting new partnerships in the works – especially for the ADT.

Wishing everyone all the best for the holidays and a Happy New Year, and we look forward to starting our Asian Tour and ADT seasons in Manila and Selangor.

Cho