An interview with Mike Sebastian on the state of Asian Golf industry

Recently while in Singapore, turfmate editor, Amy Foyster caught up with Mike Sebastian from the Asia Pacific Golf Group. 

He spoke about his take on the golf industry in Asia, what the Asia Pacific Golf Group is up to and what he sees for the future. 

This is part one of Amy’s fascinating chat with Mike, stay tuned for part two coming soon! 

How did you first start Asia Pacific Golf Group (APGG) and get into the industry?

“I am not a golf guy, I am essentially a chap who started off in the broadcasting industry eons ago then decided I couldn’t make a life long career as a disc jockey.

So, I did the extreme shift and moved to IBM and became a corporate executive. I was at IBM for about six years and ran their communications function for South East Asia. Then I got hired away by Time Inc and I decided that if I can do it for all these big boys, why can’t I go off and do my own thing? So that’s what I did. 

“I did my own thing for about 15 years and then there was a creative burnout because everything I was doing was essentially the same. Whether it was for Xerox or Toyota, it was essentially just changing logos and I looked at my wife one day and said, ‘I want out, I want to retire’. 

“I than bought into Asian Golf Monthly and since then, it has grown into different products including Asian Golf  Business. This magazine has gone through a mutation as of two months ago, it is no longer Asian Golf Business but Asian Club Business. Now the focus is more on the club management aspect than the turf and the bugs and the fertilisers.

“And we started the Asia Pacific Golf Summit, which has now become the number one B2B conference of its kind. And then we have lots of other little things going on. 

“I am fortunate to say I have a great team, good people who are committed, who multi-task who have a good understanding of the digital world and that is why we occupy a digital space. We don’t sell the magazine anymore because no one wants to pay for magazines, so we build up the eyeballs and then use the eyeballs to do the advertising. My wife looks after the purse strings and I started off as an editorial guy, which a lot of people don’t know, so I write and edit the magazine.” 

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