Martin Dempster: Shanghai a glimpse of future for game

THE record $2 million Rory McIlroy picked up for winning the Shanghai Masters on Sunday was part of a massive treasure chest for the unsanctioned event.

It has been claimed that the appearance fees paid out by organisers at least matched the overall $5m purse and might even have been as much as double that figure.

No wonder so many of the world’s top players were enticed to take part, even though the European Tour was visiting Valderrama – one of its most iconic venues – and the PGA Tour was co-sanctioning a tournament in Malaysia.

According to Chubby Chandler, we had better get used to seeing schedules with more and more Asian events and leaderboards with more Asian players to the fore, just like in the women’s game, where the remarkable Yani Tseng, for example, chalked up her 11th win of the year at the weekend.

“At the start of this year I forecasted that within five years a half of the European Tour events will be held in Asia,” said Chandler, the ISM managing director. “I was wong – it will be within three years.

“In five years’ time the money in Asia is going to be bigger than the money in America. In fact, I’d go further than this. In 15 years, 50 per cent of the players on major leaderboards will be Asian.”