1997 Asian PGA Tour explained

Year:	1997
Tour:	Asian PGA Tour
Regular Season:	–
No Of Events:	22
Most Wins:	Prayad Marksaeng (2)
Honor1:	Order of Merit
Honoree1:	Mike Cunning
Honor2:	Players' Player of the Year
Honoree2:	Prayad Marksaeng
Honor3:	Rookie of the Year
Honoree3:	Ted Purdy
Prevseason:	1996
Nextseason:	1998

The 1997 Asian PGA Tour, titled as the 1997 Omega Tour for sponsorship reasons, was the third season of the Asian PGA Tour, one of the main professional golf tours in Asia (outside of Japan) alongside the long established Asia Golf Circuit.

It was the third season of the tour under a title sponsorship agreement with Omega SA, that was announced in September 1995.^[1]

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 1997 season.^[2]

Date	Tournament	Host country	Purse (US$)	Winner	OWGR points	Notes
9 Feb	Asian Honda Classic	Thailand	300,000	Tiger Woods (n/a)	n/a
30 Mar		Vietnam	200,000	Andrew Bonhomme (1)	n/a
13 Apr		Myanmar	200,000	Boonchu Ruangkit (4)	n/a
20 Apr		Guam	200,000	Gerry Norquist (3)	n/a
27 Apr		Indonesia	200,000	Craig Parry (1)	n/a	New to Asian PGA Tour
18 May		China	400,000	Cheng Jun (1)	n/a
10 Aug		Malaysia	200,000	Des Terblanche (1)	n/a
17 Aug		Singapore	200,000	Zaw Moe (1)	n/a
7 Sep		South Korea	400,000	Park No-seok (1)	n/a
14 Sep		Indonesia	500,000	Darren Cole (1)	16	New tournament
21 Sep		Malaysia	300,000	Charlie Wi (1)	n/a
12 Oct		Singapore	150,000	Prayad Marksaeng (1)	n/a
19 Oct		Pakistan	200,000	Thammanoon Sriroj (3)	n/a
26 Oct		UAE	250,000	Adrian Percey (1)	n/a
2 Nov		India	200,000	Ted Purdy (1)	n/a	New tournament
9 Nov		Taiwan	250,000	Wang Ter-chang (1)	n/a	New tournament
16 Nov		Malaysia	200,000	Christian Peña (1)	n/a	New to Asian PGA Tour
23 Nov		Thailand	200,000	Prayad Marksaeng (2)	n/a
30 Nov		Indonesia	200,000	Clay Devers (2)	n/a
7 Dec		Hong Kong	350,000	Frank Nobilo (1)	n/a	New to Asian PGA Tour
14 Dec		Hong Kong	500,000	Rodrigo Cuello (1)	n/a
20 Dec		Philippines	250,000	Des Terblanche (2)	n/a	Limited-field event

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in U.S. dollars.^[3] ^[4]

Position	Player	Prize money ($)
1		170,619
2		123,805
3		114,716
4		111,573
5		110,840

Awards

Award	Winner
		^[5]
		^[6] ^[7]

Notes and References

News: Asian PGA looks back on a year of achievements . 15 January 1996 . 13 November 2023 . South China Morning Post . Spencer . Robinson . subscription . In September, though, Swiss watchmakers Omega came on board, signing a deal, reputed to be worth more than US$6 million, which ties them to the circuit for an initial three-year period..
News: Roll of Honour . South China Morning Post . 11 December 1997 . 28 February 2020.
News: Asian PGA Rankings . The Sydney Morning Herald . Sydney, New South Wales, Australia . 16 December 1997 . 40 (39 in paper) . 15 November 2023 . Newspapers.com.
News: Cunning tops list . Tucson Citizen . Tucson, Arizona . 17 December 1997 . 34 (4D in paper) . 31 October 2023 . Newspapers.com . subscription.
News: Zhang and Cheng poised for matchplay showdown . South China Morning Post . 17 December 1997 . 13 November 2023 . Spencer . Robinson . subscription . While Cunning won the Merit title, Prayad finished second and was named as the Players' Player of the Year..
News: Tiger-tamer Ted stakes claim for best rookie . South China Morning Post . Al . Campbell . 11 December 1997 . 14 November 2023 . subscription.
Web site: Ted Purdy . . 14 November 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171001163948/https://arizonawildcats.com/sports/2013/12/10/209336380.aspx . 1 October 2017 . Ted was laboring on the Asian Tour from 1997-2003. In 1997 he was the Indian Master Champion and was named the Rookie of the Year on the Asian PGA Tour..