Mena Tour returns with new Thailand series in conjunction with Asian Development Tour

Golf’s Mena Tour will return next month following a two-year hiatus with a four-event series in Thailand, with organisers confirming on Tuesday its 2022 season is set for October and will feature a “strong focus in the Mena region”.

The developmental golf circuit, which took root in the UAE in 2011, will stage the “Beautiful Thailand Swing” across three weeks in Phuket, and will have four 54-hole tournaments. Each carries a $75,000 purse and will be co-sanctioned by the Asian Development Tour (ADT).

The series kicks off with the Laguna Phuket Challenge from May 3-5, followed by the Laguna Phuket Cup (May 8-10), the Blue Canyon Classic (May 13-15) and the Blue Canyon Open (May 18-20). The latter concludes the Mena Tour’s pandemic-impacted 2020 Order of Merit, the “Journey to Jordan”.

The Money List winner will be invited to one of the events in the Asian Tour’s new ‘The International Series’, which includes 10 marquee tournaments worth at least $1.5m each.

The top 10 Order of Merit players will also be awarded playing opportunities in the next two ADT events, with the possibility of earning promotion to the Asian Tour, as well as being exempted to the final stage of Asian Tour Q-School for the 2023 season. In December, the Mena Tour and the Asian Tour signed a strategic alliance, while a statement released by the former on Tuesday said a full merger of the Mena Tour and the ADT is mooted from 2023.

The #BeautifulThailandSwing promises a potentially life-changing start in one of the @asiantourgolf's new 'International Series' events in 2022. Find out what else is on the line @LagunaGolfHKT & @BlueCanyonCC in our just announced Phuket swing here: https://t.co/7eNdWiOw9L pic.twitter.com/bmgU2FT9oY

In the statement, Mena Tour