Asian Tour chief upbeat for 2010 despite OneAsiaAsian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has a separate tour. It is administered from offices in Singapore. The first season in the current lineage was played in 1995, although there had been earlier attempts to create an chief Kyi Hla Han Kyi Hla Han (born 13 February 1961) is a golfer from Myanmar (formerly Burma). He turned professional in 1980. He recorded his first professional win at the 1983 Malaysian PGA Championship. He played on the Asian Tour from its debut season in 1995 until 2004. is upbeat about the outlook for 2010 despite the global downturn Downturn The transition point between a rising, expanding economy to a falling, contracting one. downturn A decline in security prices or economic activity following a period of rising or stable prices or activity. and the emergence of the rival OneAsia Tour. The current season has been hit by sponsors reviewing their sporting commitments and the launch of OneAsia, a rival tour that took over two Asian Tour events. But Kyi Hla Han is optimistic op·ti·mist n. 1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome. 2. A believer in philosophical optimism. op , saying OneAsia has not lived up to many of its promises while sponsors were showing renewed interest in hosting tournaments. "I'm very positive about next year," he told AFP (1) (AppleTalk Filing Protocol) The file sharing protocol used in an AppleTalk network. In order for non-Apple networks to access data in an AppleShare server, their protocols must translate into the AFP language. See file sharing protocol. . "We're getting a lot of inquiries and requests. We are talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to quite a few new sponsors and they seem very interested, so to me it's looking good for next year." He said an enhanced television Enhanced Television (ETV) is a collection of specifications developed under the OpenCable project of CableLabs (Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.) that define an ETV Application consisting of resources (files) adhering to the Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) content platform, with Britain's Sky Sports and VIASAT in Scandinavia agreeing to broadcast Asian Tour events, meant far better exposure and sponsors were keen to come on board. "When we show our sponsors what our tv platform is they are very happy with the way we are moving forward," he said. "This year has been unfortunate with the financial storm plus the OneAsia crisis, but I think we've weathered it pretty well." OneAsia launched in January, bringing together Tours from China, South Korea and Australia to form a "super series" that it hopes can rival the European and US Tours. It initially had six events on its calendar with a boast that each would offer at least one million dollars in prizemoney. But one event fell through and only three of them will meet the cash pledge. There is no love lost between the two Tours and Kyi Hla Han said there were no plans to reopen re·o·pen tr. & intr.v. re·o·pened, re·o·pen·ing, re·o·pens 1. To open or be opened again: Officials reopened the airport after the snow was cleared. Schools reopen in September. talks to smooth out their differences. "Not at this moment," he said. "It just seems hard to know what OneAsia is up to, They claim one thing and do another. I really don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what their objectives are. "My objective is clear -- get more tournaments for the players, and it has been very positive in the past few months in getting our 2010 schedule together." Despite losing several events this year to OneAsia and the economic turmoil, the Asian Tour has added a new event to the end of the season, the Kings Cup in Thailand, and is close to announcing another. That would make 24 in 2009. OneAsia says it will host 12-15 tournaments next year, but Kyi Hla Han is sceptical. "I'd like to see it to believe it," he said. "They can claim whatever they want. They claim that what they offer is an advancement for the sponsors in terms of better fields, but it hasn't been that way. "If you look at the two tournaments they have held this year, the status has actually gone down. They were Asian Tour events before and we can clearly see the status has gone down. "If they say they are bringing an enhancement to the region then they need to show it because that hasn't been the case so far." While OneAsia may not have made the impact it planned, it still has the support of golfing authorities in China, a lucrative market that Kyi Hla Han is keen to get back into. But he is not sure what direction the China Golf Association is moving. "I don't really know what China is looking at, I don't think they do," he said. "You look at the Omega China Tour The Omega China Tour was launched by the China Golf Association in 2005. It is a development tour intended to produce players who can move up to the Asian Tour or other international tours, and to help accelerate the development of golf in the People's Republic of China, where it this year and it stopped after four events. It was supposed to be 12-15, or at least that was the claim a few years ago. We haven't seen it. "We'd love to stage events in China again but we're not going to do it just to spite OneAsia. We'll talk about it." 
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