There are times when you do things in a huff. When something makes you angry, you should really wait a few minutes, take a few deep breaths and consider the consequences of what you might do.
I didn’t follow my own advice today when I saw an article in Bloomberg about the Asian Tour’s stance on a possible tie-up with the Australasian and Japanese tours.
I had contacted the Asian Tour around two months ago requesting a comment from executive director Kyi Hla Han about this project. My intention was to write the article for Reuters.
The reply I received was that they would get back to me. A few days later nothing. Weeks later … nothing.
And today, I see Grant Clark, who is a top-notch journalist, has managed to get a comment from Kyi Hla. Good on him.
Of course, I was fuming because I was on to the story ages ago. I’ve known the Asian Tour guys for many years and get along well with them, having never had even the slightest of bust-ups.
That will possibly change because, instead of taking a few deep breaths and waiting a few minutes, I fired off a nasty email to them.
I’m sure our relationship will still be close. Overall, they do a fantastic job promoting the Asian Tour, which is growing year by year but I feel they got it wrong in this case.
Anyway, the so-called OneAsia Tour, to kick off in 2009, is a venture between the Australasian Tour and the Japanese Tour.
Officials on both tours are keen to have the Asians on board. However, Kyi Hla told Bloomberg (grrrrr) that they would only consider the proposal if their second-tier events are safe.
The Asian Tour, because it is geared towards helping golf grow in the region, wants some of their smaller events to survive and not be overwhelmed by the bigger tournaments that might dominate the OneAsia Tour. He said:
“The OneAsia Tour is worth considering. I’d like to pursue it but I have to make sure the backbone of the tour is sustainable.”
Well, at least he finally said something about it.
