1981 Asia Golf Circuit

The 1981 Asia Golf Circuit was the 20th season of the Asia Golf Circuit (formerly the Far East Circuit), the main professional golf tour in Asia since it was established in 1961.

1981 Asia Golf Circuit season

Duration	19 February 1981 (1981-02-19) – 26 April 1981 (1981-04-26)
Number of official events	10
Most wins	Chen Tze-ming (2) Tom Sieckmann (2) Payne Stewart (2)
Order of Merit	Lu Hsi-chuen
← 1980 1982 →

Changes for 1981

In 1978, Papua New Guinea had joined the Asian Golf Confederation with the intention of adding a tournament to the circuit in 1980.^[1][2] These plans were postponed and the tournament was then provisionally scheduled to start the 1981 season,^[3] but Papua New Guinea withdrew from the circuit later in the year.^[4]

After several years of the Indian Open clashing with the Malaysian Dunlop Masters, the Malaysian Golf Association managed to get the organisers, Dunlop Malaysia, to agree to reschedule their event.^[5] However, the organisers of the Rolex Masters in Singapore controversially then organised their tournament for the same dates.^[6]

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 1981 season.^[7][8]

Date	Tournament	Host country	Purse (US$)	Winner[a]	Other tours[b]	Notes
22 Feb	Philippine Open	Philippines	150,000	Tom Sieckmann (1)
1 Mar	Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open	Hong Kong	120,000	Chen Tze-ming (2)
8 Mar	Thailand Open	Thailand	60,000	Tom Sieckmann (2)
15 Mar	Indian Open	India	60,000	Payne Stewart (1)
22 Mar	Malaysian Open	Malaysia	70,000	Lu Hsi-chuen (7)
29 Mar	Singapore Open	Singapore	70,000	Mya Aye (2)
5 Apr	Indonesia Open	Indonesia	60,000	Payne Stewart (2)
12 Apr	Taiwan Open	Taiwan	100,000	Ho Ming-chung (3)
19 Apr	Korea Open	South Korea	70,000	Chen Tze-ming (3)
26 Apr	Dunlop International Open	Japan	¥30,000,000	Kosaku Shimada (1)	JPN

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit was based on tournament results during the season, calculated using a points-based system.^[9]

Position	Player	Points
1	Lu Hsi-chuen	713
2	Ho Ming-chung	697
3	Payne Stewart	690
4	Tom Sieckmann	675
5	Chen Tze-ming	627

Notes

1. The number in brackets after each winner's name is the number of Asia Golf Circuit events they had won up to and including that tournament. This information is only shown for Asia Golf Circuit members.
2. JPN − PGA of Japan Tour.