Bangkok, Thailand: The Asian Development Tour (ADT) has whetted the appetite for its 2023 season by announcing that three tournaments will be jointly sanctioned with the All Thailand Golf Tour (ATGT) – a long-standing partner of the ADT.

Ahead of an imminent full schedule announcement, the ADT confirmed that the Singha Laguna Phuket Open, the Singha Pattaya Open and the inaugural ADT – All Thailand Partnership Trophy will feature on both schedules this year.

The Phuket event has been jointly sanctioned with the ADT since 2017 and will be played from May 25-28 at Laguna Golf Phuket, a Facility Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.

Meanwhile, the first edition of the Partnership Trophy will be staged at Phoenix Gold Golf & Country Club in Chonburi (July 6-9), followed by the Singha Pattaya Open (July 13-16).

Won a record four times by Thailand’s Prom Meesawat, the Singha Pattaya Open is one of the most established events on the ATGT but this will mark the first occasion it’s been part of the ADT.

Both the Phuket and Pattaya tournaments will offer a prize purse of THB4 million (about US$117,000), while prize money at Phoenix Gold is THB3 million (about US$88,000).

Cho Minn Thant, Commissioner and CEO, Asian Tour, said: “This a great way to start build up for the 2023 season on the Asian Development Tour. The schedule is taking shape and looks robust, particularly now we are able to re-affirm our mutually beneficial relationship with our friends at the All Thailand Golf Tour.

“The ATGT is arguably the region’s foremost domestic circuit and has launched the careers of some of the greatest players Asia has seen, so being able to co-sanction events with them is a boon for all parties involved.”

All three events will feature 144 players, with a minimum of 56 spots plus four invites for members of the ADT.

Last year the ADT staged a total of 17 events boasting overall prize money of US$1.762 million.

A little over two years after play was halted because of the global pandemic, the ADT resumed at the Gurugram Challenge in India, in March, 2022 with American Dodge Kemmer claiming victory.

The Tour then staged four consecutive events on Phuket Island in Thailand, called the ‘Beautiful Swing Thailand’ and jointly sanctioned with the MENA Tour. There were also six events in Indonesia, two ground-breaking tournaments in Saudi Arabia and one event each in Chinese-Taipei, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Thailand’s Suteepat Prateeptienchai dominated the season with three victories – the Blue Canyon Open in his home country and the BNI Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament and Combiphar Players Championship, both in Indonesia – to earn a battlefield promotion onto the Asian Tour for the remainder of the season.

The last player to achieve that feat was Korean star Tom Kim Joo-hyung in 2019.

The top-10 players from last year’s ADT Order of Merit were rewarded with playing privileges for the Asian Tour in 2023.

In addition to Suteepat, the others to make it through were Thais Chonlatit Chuenboonngam (second), Chanat Sakulpolphaisan (sixth) and Denwit Boriboonsub (10th), Indonesian Naraajie E. Ramadhanputra (third), Malaysian Shahriffuddin Ariffin (fourth), China’s Chen Guxin (fifth), Lloyd Jefferson Go (seventh) of the Philippines, Kemmer (eighth) and Australian Harrison Gilbert (ninth).