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Josh Ball

The International Series will take its first steps into China this season, with Shanghai expected to host a tournament during a pivotal three-week swing that could also include the Philippines and Hong Kong.
Although the Asian Tour’s schedule only lists an event from November 5 to 8, sources said officials were working on taking a tournament with a US$2.5 million prize fund to the country’s biggest city.
Shanghai’s Enhance Anting Golf Club, which will stage the DP World Tour’s (DPWT) Volvo China Open in April, is likely to be among the venues considered for the series’ debut on the mainland.
While the DPWT’s relationship with the China Golf Association previously limited access for other tours, that has changed over the past 18 months, and LIV Golf boss Scott O’Neil met with Chinese officials last year to discuss a way forward.
The International Series serves as a pathway to LIV and is seen by many as a stepping stone for the league, which returns to Hong Kong next week, to launch a tournament across the border.
“We’re very excited about going back to China,” Rahul Singh, head of the International Series, said. “That’s going to be massive for us.

“China is an interesting market. It is obviously very heavily aligned with the China Golf Association, and they’ve had their association with the European Tour [DPWT] for a few years. And now with them openly welcoming us back, I think that’s a big step into a major market.”
Dates for the Philippine and Hong Kong events have yet to be confirmed, although both were staged on consecutive weekends in October and November last year.
But with the season-ending PIF Saudi International starting on November 18, and the SJM Macau Open on October 15, there are only so many weeks when they could be played.
Still, the China tournament will clash with the DPWT’s Abu Dhabi Championship, although Singh said the only consideration surrounded his organisation’s conversations with “local associations”.
“Some of the politics of the sport, or of the other tours being present over there is honestly none of our business,” Singh said.
“And we’ve said this from day one, we’re not competing with them. We’re not trying to get in anyone else’s way. We have a mandate. We have a purpose. We have a mission. And we’re true to that.
“I’m not going to go to any of the other tours and ask them how we can do something in territory that they’re already existing in. We want to work with the local association and see how we can work with them to grow the sport in their territories.”
The introduction of a tournament in China only reinforces the regional focus of the series, and while Singh acknowledged it had been “Asian centric” since its emergence four years ago, that would change next year.

Calling 2026 a development year, the tour boss also recognised the lack of stability when it came to tournaments dropping in and out of the schedule.
With nine announced so far, and a target of as many as 14 in the future, Singh said the plan was to ensure this year’s stops in China, India, Vietnam and beyond were the blocks 2027 would be built on.
“We’ve done the IS [International Series] event in the Middle East, we’ve done the IS event in the UK, but the focus has really been so far on Asia and a large part of that has been because our association most closely lies with the Asian Tour,” he said.
“So we have China, we have India, we have Philippines, we have Vietnam, we have Morocco, all of these, they’ll stay there. And now we’ll start building on that.”


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Golf

First tournament on mainland could be part of pivotal three-week swing that also includes Hong Kong and the Philippines


First tournament on mainland could be part of pivotal three-week swing that also includes Hong Kong and the Philippines.


Scott O’Neil

DP World Tour

International Series eyes Shanghai for China debut as officials look at ‘building year’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}First tournament on mainland could be part of pivotal three-week swing that also includes Hong Kong and the Philippines

First tournament on mainland could be part of pivotal three-week swing that also includes Hong Kong and the Philippines