Could Asian Players Dominate Men’s Golf As In The Women’s Game?

In this week’s Rolex Women’s Golf Rankings 56 of the top-100 players are from the continent of Asia. By contrast, in the current Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) – the men’s rankings – only seven players in the top-100 come from Asian countries. By those numbers, you would say that Asian male players have a long way to go if they are to emulate their female counterparts and dominate the professional game.

But there are signs that Asian male players are starting to move to the fore in greater numbers. This weekend past, 21-year-old Japanese amateur Taiga Semikawa won the prestigious Japan Open – the first time in the event’s 95-year history that it has been won by an amateur golfer. And this was no flash in the pan – Semikawa has won three professional events in a row. He’d previously claimed victory in the Panasonic Open Golf Championship and Japan Create Challenge in FukuokaRaizan. Semikawa is currently the World’s Number 1 ranked amateur. He follows fellow Japanese players Takumi Kanaya and Keita Nakajima in topping the amateur world ranking.