Amata Spring Golf Club is determined to see the Thailand Golf Championship become one of the most celebrated on the Asian Tour schedule.

This year’s initial has attracted of the season’s reigning Major Champions is Augusta winner, Charl Schwartzel and Open Champion, Darren Clarke.

Joining them is former World No. 1 Lee Westwood along with Spain’s Sergio Garcia, a recent back-to-back winner on the European Tour and England’s Simon Dyson, winner this year of the Irish Open and KLM Open.

The only disappointment was the late withdrawal of current U.S. Open winner, Rory McIlroy through illness.

Andrew Pitts is the Director of Golf at the stunning Amata Spring Country Club course, and the American is also a former Asian Tour player having competed on the Tour from 1997 to 2002.

Andrew Pitts a former Taiwan Open champion but now Director of Golf at Amata Spring Country Club.

Pitts, winner of the 2001 Taiwan Open (see photo), also this week is acting as the Tournament Director for the Thailand Golf Championship.

And he outlined his plans to www.golfbytourmiss.com to turn the tournament into one of best full-field Asian events on the schedule.

“This tournament is a special event on the Asian Tour and there has never been a full field Asian tournament like this in the history of the Asian Tour since it restarted in 2004,” said Pitts.

“With the number of top-50 players in the world and the number of top-five players in the world and Major Champions in Schwarztel, Daly and Darren Clarke makes it a quality field.

“It’s about testing the best players in the world against the best players in the region and the best players in the country on what is arguable one of the finest golf courses in all of Asia.

“It is evident we have created something special due to the amount of international exposure we have here this week.

“So our goal is to create a special event that is not only special for Thailand but it helps promote Thailand on its road to recovery from flooding. 

“There is also the tourism impact we will get from this event.

“TV coverage will go to about 840 million people.  It is going live in the States, live in Europe and live across Asia.

“It promotes the country and it is not about having a golf tournament but it promotes Thailand to the rest of the world and when people are sitting in the colder parts of the world it may encourage them to come to Thailand for a holiday and to maybe play golf.”

As is the scenario with many new events such as Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in Abu Dhabi, it is the feedback from the players themselves that Pitts is hoping will spread the word about Amata Spring.

“There is going to be lot of positive impact this tournament will bring to professional golf in the rest of the world and not this great event,” added Pitts.

“Obviously, this is our inaugural event and we are very happy with the coverage and we are very happy with the international interest and also very happy that a number of the top players in the world were able to play, and we think after this year, and based on the success of this tournament, we will be able to grow the event based on the quality venue we have.

“But you cannot have a world class tournament if you don’t have world class players competing, so it’s not only the venue.

“There is not a lot of interest in events if the best guys in the world are not playing.  So our goal will be to continue to give the some of the top players in the world …… let me say we have any entry criteria for this event and that is to attract the top-18 players in the world in the top 200 on the rankings.

“So our goal will definitely continue to support and to make sure those guys are playing this event.”

But then Pitts was quizzed how difficult could it be to attract players at the end of a long season, and particularly when you look at the situation with Rory Mcilroy, to come and play another event and so close to Christmas.

“Guys are tired at this time of year and we understand that it can be trying for some players,” said Pitts.

“However we do feel once a number of players who are not familiar with Amata Spring and once they see it on TV they might have a different attitude.

“We feel due to the golf course and based on their positive feedback how well they are treated this week that it might not be as difficult to attract even a better field next year.

“We hope that Amata Spring will sell itself in terms of attracting other international players.”