To get a sense of how much the landscape in golf is changing, consider the PGA Tour schedule next year.
The Asia swing in October will have as many tournaments as the Florida swing in March.
Perhaps this illustrates the suspicions seven years ago when PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem held a news conference on the final day of the HSBC Champions and whispers filled the room that it was the start of an "Asian invasion".
That was the first year the HSBC Champions, billed as "Asia's major," became a World Golf Championship.
The PGA Tour added the CIMB Classic in Malaysia the following year. Justin Thomas won the seventh edition at Kuala Lumpur this year, and the next day the tour announced it had a 10-year deal with South Korean conglomerate CJ Corp. to sponsor an event in South Korea starting in 2017 that offers $US9.25 million in prize money.
Only the four majors, The Players Championship and the World Golf Championships have higher purses.
Two days later, the PGA Tour celebrated the opening of a new Asian office in Tokyo.
The PGA Tour Champions is going to Japan next year, though any regular PGA Tour event is not on the immediate horizon.
Japan is hosting the Olympics in 2020. Any tournament beyond that likely would start with the World Cup and the Presidents Cup, which next has an open date on the international calendar in 2023.
A week's worth of Asian developments got the attention of the players. They now have the option of playing for $US26 million over three straight weeks, although those tournaments are halfway around the world.
"It just seems like we should play at home, but I'm not sure where the tour is trying to go," said Kevin Kisner when asked about the new tournament in South Korea.
"(But) the economy is not growing fast enough in the US to keep asking people to throw money at us."
The LPGA Tour, ahead of the curve by necessity, is wrapping up a six-tournament swing through Asia this week.
Meanwhile, the Florida swing in March will have only three PGA Tour events next year because the World Golf Championship at Doral has moved to Mexico City.
It will be the first time that two WGCs are held outside the United States since the series began in 1999.
Times are changing.
