- Back to Africa?:  It now appears that the concept of the proposed OneAsia Tour debuting in 2009 may well become a reality – though until the Asian Tour itself agrees to come along for the ride, some doubt must remain.  The concept is a fairly simple one: band together the various smaller tours throughout Asia and Australia to create a regional super tour better able to compete with the professional golf world's dominant forces, the PGA Tour and the European Tour.  That the Australian PGA, and the China and Korea Golf Associations have bought in is no surprise; all three clearly stand to benefit, both immediately and in the long term.  More surprising, I think, was the interest of the Japan PGA Tour, a financially stable, well-established circuit which has long seemed lukewarm to the idea of involving itself internationally.  Their willingness to join should have cinched the deal...and yet the Asia Tour remains hesitant.  Published reports have given few specifics as to the reasons for their reticence, though one guess might simply be that they’ve enjoyed far more recent growth their neighbors and see little reason to compromise their increasingly strong position.  But the Asian Tour must, I think, eventually come aboard, and when it does, the combination of golf’s huge popularity within the region, as well as Asia's rosy long-term economic forecast should make for a potent operation indeed.  The big losers?  Perhaps the European Tour – perhaps – who potentially stand to lose their co-sanctioned Asian events, minimizing their Far East presence and leaving some gaping holes in their winter/early spring schedule.  The big winners?  The Australasian Tour for certain (who’ll gain a new lease on life) and the China and Korea Associations, who will finally gain a meaningful foothold on the world golfing stage.  But one additional winner might be lurking just outside of the spotlight: Southern Africa’s Sunshine Tour.  For if the E Tour loses most or all of its Asian events, its most logical move (short of contraction) is to expand further into Africa – hardly a radical concept to anyone who recalls the extensive winter circuit played in South Africa and Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) by British professionals during the 1960s and ‘70s.  The E Tour currently co-sponsors the South African Airways Open, the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Joburg Open on the Sunshine Tour.  If OneAsia comes to fruition, might the Dimension Data Pro-Am, the South African Masters and/or the Telkom PGA be next?

Saturday’s Round of the Day

At the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Vijay Singh’s 73 (which included three bogeys and a double during one inglorious four-hole stretch) was noteworthy, but Nick Watney’s even-par 70 was truly one for the ages.  Watney managed the rare feat of eagling both of Bay Hills’s par fives which, combined with two birdies and two bogeys, left him a solid four under par through 15 holes.  He then posted a rare number on the PGA Tour – a quadruple bogey eight - at the 16th, to ultimately finish even.  Lose the quad and he leads by two – but that, as Robert Culp once observed “is the difference between karate and handball.”

- Overnight UPDATE: Details have not crossed the wire as this is written, but Graeme McDowell has just beaten Jeev Milkha Singh on the third hole of sudden death to take the Ballantine's Championship in South Korea.  The two men began the day four ahead of Ireland's Paul McGinley but soon left the field far behind, their Sunday 66s leaving them a stout seven shots up on the 3rd-place McGinley.  A big win, to be sure, for Graeme McDowell.