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The International Series head Rahul Singh, while speaking to Sportskeeda at the Moutai Singapore Open 2025 at Singapore Island Country Club, said the circuit is constantly working to ‘grow the game.’ The Asian Tour and LIV Golf sanctioned event, founded in 2022, is constantly exploring newer countries and audiences.According to Singh, the series is mixing up the fields with local talents and experienced world-class players to gap the difference between the two. Interestingly, the series chief indirectly commented on the ongoing golf divide in the world and said that The International Series is an “open house” with “no restrictions” for any players across the world.For the unversed, the event is Singapore saw the series travel to SICC for the first time, following first-time venues including India, Philippines and Japan. He went on to acknowledge the Asian Tour’s growth in recent years after the inception of LIV Golf but reserved his comment on the Saudi-backed series’ recent format change.Rahul Singh with Dustin Johnson at International Series Philippines (Image via The International Series)Full Rahul Singh interview on The International Series’ ‘inclusive’ nature, LIV Golf’s Asian Tour partnership, Singapore Open and more.The International Series is at Singapore Island Country Club for the first time. How's the tournament looking?It looks great. Golf course looks good. You know, the weather has been such that I think we're going to get nice low scores, which is always great for spectators to see. I'm sure Thursday, I mean Thursday and Friday are always a little quiet in Singapore, but I'm sure the weekend will fill up. Set up looks great. Good field. And most importantly, I think the return of the Singapore Open and return to the international series. I think that's what's big for us. We are finding a way to ensure that the Singapore Open stays as part of the international series as we progress for the years ahead. And how do we add to it? How do we enhance it? How do we make it a bigger event? This used to be called the major of Asia. And I think there's going to be a time when hopefully we'll start seeing exemptions back into this event and so on.How important is it that The International Series is bring the game to a newer venue like India, Japan and Philippines than sticking to the same events every year?Huge. So look, simply put, one of our mandates the series from LIV Golf with our partnership with the Asian Tour is to grow the game. Now, growing the game doesn't mean just adding prize money and bringing players, it means going into new territories it means creating new pathways, growing the audience, bringing family and children to golf courses to experience what we have, forgive me for saying this but it means changing the way golf is perceived, especially in Asia, where it's always been looked at as a very high-end, elite sport. In the Philippines, we did exactly the same thing. We had an audience of 31,000 who came out there. These are countries which normally saw tiny audiences coming out to watch golf.Bryson DeChambeu was a big name who came down to India. Is The International Series always looking to bring more world-class players on its fields?When we go into new destinations, we know that the golfing fraternity there wants to be able to come face to face with some of the biggest stars in the world… You go into an India or a Philippines, bringing Bryson (DeChambeu) to India and Dustin Johnson to the Philippines took audiences that don’t otherwise normally have the opportunity to come so close to global superstars and bring them there. So, there is a massive impact that has at one level for the audience. But think about what it does for the Kartik Singhs of the world. You take a 15-year-old amateur and you suddenly throw him into the field with a global superstar. It serves as motivation, inspiration, an opportunity to see what they do differently and also by the prize money it brings, by the impact that these players have, what we're hoping is that young talent that is looking at golf but doesn't really know what to make of it, suddenly starts seeing this as a career opportunity. We want them to see this as a viable career opportunity.You had earlier emphasized that The International Series will be ‘inclusive,’ The golf world is currently in a divide as the PGA Tour continues to have a ban on LIV Players. Is The International Series open to bringing players from any tour?Absolutely. Remember that The International Series is a sanctioned Asian tour event. We don't restrict anyone. We have categories that are open to the top 300 players in the world, to the top amateurs from the country, to major winners, to Ryder cuppers, to President Cup players. We have a category for all of them. So, we continue to stand by the fact that we are 100% inclusive. And let me be clear that the International Series does not face restrictions as far as other tours go. We've had Justin Rose come and play at the Hong Kong Open. We've had players play across tours. So no restrictions. We're open house and we welcome the best.You have talked about The International Series being a sports franchise in ‘conjunction with LIV Golf.’ Is the current series where you imagine it to finally be or is it still growing?It's definitely still growing, but I think what is definitely also important to understand is that we are part of a larger, let me call it a LIV Golf ecosystem. So you have the 14 league events, you have the 10 international series events, you have the promotions event, and it's very important that these are all tied in as far as the schedule goes… And the reason that that's important is because if, supposing you had an international series event and a LIV Golf event in the same week, you wouldn't get the players. So what we try very hard to do is that, especially in region, the events that we have for the series is on either side of a LIV event, so that the players who are here for a LIV event can make an easy transition into a series event… It's just convenience, it's about again ensuring that we have access to some of the best players.The International Series Rankings now offer two LIV Golf qualification spots. Can we expect more in the future?Well, it's not actually just two. It's two through the rankings. But remember, it's also two through the promotions event. And there will be like 30 boys from the international series who will be playing or who will have the opportunity to play at the promotion event. We're committed to providing pathways for our players. It was the fundamental premise and I think it's the fundamental responsibility of any tour to make sure that today there is a pathway. And that's what our partnership with the Asian Tour does. We have Q-School, we have the Asian Development Tour, we have the Asian Tour, we have the International Series, we have LIV Golf League, and you have the Majors.About LIV Golf’s recent format change announcement…I'd almost prefer that the league answers that question rather than us. We're a tour-based, tour-sanctioned event of the series. We play 72 holes, so welcome to the party.What is the one underrated Asian golf country?Well, I think we were... immensely surprised and delighted by the response in the Philippines. We weren't sure… Of course it had multiple players who played on the Asian tour… I think the kind of response that we got in the Philippines was just, it blew our minds. I think the return to India was really important. It's been a very important event or rather very important destination for the Asian tour over the years. I think over a period of time we'll definitely find ourselves going back to Vietnam.Japan has been a huge addition for the series. So, I think the first focus will be to move into some of the powerhouse countries that have always been significantly involved with golf. But then, unfortunately, we got cancelled, but we were going to be in Cambodia, which is very much you know a new destination for something like an International Series event, it was eye-opening that a sponsor wanted to bring the series event to Cambodia which is such a small destination for golf.What's your expectation for The International Series’ season-ender event in Saudi Arabia?It's going to be tight. I mean the Saudi event gets more points. So, the amount of points that the winner will get and all the way down the road is actually elevated for the Saudi international because of the elevated prize money… I think this week will set itself up very nicely into that final season ender where someone can go in and have a great week and completely turn the tables topsy-turvy. But I know that the guys who are especially in the top 10 of the rankings right now, they've all got their eyes on those top two spots at the end of Saudi. So all the best and we look forward to an exciting finish.
