Jason Day hits a tee shot during the Zozo Championship on Thursday in Inzai, Chiba, Japan. Photo: VCG

The US PGA Tour is ready to roll the dice and unveil gambling at tournaments "from next year" to tap into new audiences, Commissioner Jay Monahan has revealed.

Gaming restrictions are being relaxed across the US and golf has been preparing for legalized sports betting for years, Monahan said in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the inaugural Zozo Championship in ­Japan.

"You'll start to see product in the market place next year," he said, with the primary aims to attract new fans and to prolong interest over a tournament day, which can stretch to 12 hours or more.

The $9.75 million Zozo Championship, which began Thursday featuring Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy in a star-studded field, is the middle leg of the Tour's new Asian swing, worth almost $30 million in prize money. 

It began last week in South ­Korea at the $9.75 million CJ Cup won by Justin Thomas and concludes at the $10.25 million WGC-HSBC ­Champions in Shanghai next week.  

"It's all about engagement," said Monahan of the plan to introduce gambling. "When done right, it gives fans the opportunity to engage with your sport over a longer period of time and have more interest in what's happening across the entire field."

Monahan is acutely aware that gambling within the sport will need rigorous monitoring, given match-­fixing scandals that have dogged sports.

"It's legalized in a lot of international markets and we've put the right systems in place, both in terms of an integrity program and monitoring ­activity," explained Monahan, who has been in charge of the world's biggest golf tour since taking over from Tim Finchem in January 2017. 

"As it is becoming legalized by states in the US, you can either participate or not, and we feel smarter to be participating ... versus let others control it," he added.

Monahan would not be drawn on exactly what products might be unveiled but said they were being developed in an international partnership with IMG Arena - specialists in sports and the betting industry - with integrity the top priority.

"Once you start to participate, you can eliminate negative bets," he said. "We've done a ton of work to make certain that that's the position we're in. We've taken significant steps to address that. We're going to ­participate in a thoughtful way."

Japan is a golf-crazy country and there have been massive crowds flocking to Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club, some 80 kilometers outside Tokyo, for the new $9.75 million event to see the likes of Woods, McIlroy and homegrown hero Hideki Matsuyama. It is whetting the appetite for next year's Olympics in Tokyo, said Monahan­. 

"I'm excited to come back and see golf in Tokyo at an Olympics, it's going to be as passionate a following as any sport's going to have," he said. 

"We're not going to be playing opposite the week of the Olympics," he said, underscoring the importance of the Games in golf's global calendar.