Asian newcomers add muscle to Pak and Kim show
Look out America! The Asian invasion of the US LPGA Tour is about to commence in earnest.
Already accustomed to seeing Koreans Pak Se-ri and Kim Mi-hyun enter the winner's circle, followers of the world's most lucrative women's professional golf circuit would do well to begin rehearsing the names of the fresh-faced Asians who will be gracing the US fairways from next year.
When they teed-up in the women's golfing section at the Bangkok Asian Games 10 months ago, Lin Yu-ping, Dorothy Delasin and Jennifer Rosales were relative unknowns. Last weekend, the Asian trio made the ultimate leap when they gained fully exempt status for the 2000 US LPGA Tour.
Overcoming indifferent starts to the final stage 72-hole qualifying tournament, all three proved their mettle.
With only 19 full Tour cards up for grabs, Taiwan's Lin, individual gold medallist in Bangkok, and the Philippines duo of Delasin, this year's US Amateur champion, and Rosales made the top 10.
That's not all. Joining them on the 2000 Tour will be Korean prodigy Gloria Park, already being described in her native country as the 'new Pak Se-ri'.
Watch out, too, for two more Koreans - Kwon Oh-yeon and Jeong Jang - and Malaysian Lim Siew Ai who are also guaranteed numerous starts having secured conditional playing rights by virtue of finishing among the top 60.
By dint of her record-breaking efforts in America over the last two years, Pak has shown them the way. Winner of two Major events in the US last year, Pak has proved to the players she used to compete against in amateur tournaments in the region, that they, too, have what it takes to make the transition to the big time.
Inevitably, the success of Asia's top women golfers on the international stage begs the question why Asian men have found it more difficult to make the breakthrough.
There is a whole host of theories. Some say that the depth in quality in the women's game does not come close to the men's game, while others argue that it's due to the fact that the women are 'forced' overseas to pursue their careers because they don't have their own circuit in Asia on which to showcase their talents and earn a viable living.
Others still claim that it's simply a case that Asia's female golfers are mentally stronger than their male counterparts and, therefore, better equipped to cope with the demands associated with pressure golf.
Encouragingly, though, there are increasing signs that it won't be long before Asian men will be matching the feats of the women.
Led by Gerald Rosales, Kim Sung-yoon, Kim Dae-sub and Prom Meesawat, there can be little dispute that Asia currently boasts its strongest batch of male amateurs for more than a generation.
While his younger sister was dominating the sporting headlines in her home country last week, Gerald Rosales was also enhancing his reputation as one of Asia's great golfing hopes for the millennium.
With a 68 at Orchid Country Club yesterday, Rosales ended the Asian PGA's Nokia Singapore Open with a flourish to claim a place in the top 15.
Since winning the silver medal at the Bangkok Asian Games, Rosales has struck gold at the Southeast Asian Games and a fortnight ago placed second in the 14-nation Asia-Pacific men's amateur team championship for the Nomura Cup.
Despite his slight frame, Rosales impressed as he outscored his playing partners, Australian Rodney Pampling, the first-round leader in this year's British Open at Carnoustie, in Saturday's third round in Singapore, and last year's Asian PGA Order of Merit champion Kang Wook-soon yesterday.
Following the tournament, Rosales confirmed that he would be taking the plunge and relinquishing his amateur status next month after spearheading his country's challenge for honours in the Southeast Asian men's amateur team championship for the Putra Cup, also in Singapore.
If you thought the scenes on and around the 17th green at last month's Ryder Cup were a shocking statement for golf, what are we to make of the verbal rantings of Peter Alliss, doyen of television commentators, and US Open champion Payne Stewart? Apparently referring to the rowdy and abusive behaviour towards European team members of a section of the American galleries in Boston, Alliss was quoted as saying in a British newspaper: 'Americans might as well be Chinese.' Stewart's response further fuelled the fires. 'I just want Peter Alliss to know all the players on the American Ryder Cup team, we are all Chinese too,' Stewart told a television interviewer, putting on an exaggerated accent and squinting his eyes.
Stewart, who cut his professional golfing teeth in Asia in the early 1980s and was one of the main drawcards at the 1995 Hong Kong Open, was later reported as apologising for his outburst. He conceded: 'It wasn't right for me to do what I have done.' One would have hoped that all those who genuinely respect the game's image would act rather more responsibly.
