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Hong Kong Open invites golfers to Beat the Pro in new charity drive


Published on November 2, 2019

Hong Kong, November 2: Members of the Hong Kong golfing public will have the opportunity to tee it up alongside the likes of Major Champions Francesco Molinari, Patrick Reed and Henrik Stenson when the 61st edition of the Hong Kong Open gets underway from November 28 – December 1, 2019.

In a first for Hong Kong’s longest standing professional sporting event, golfers will be able to compete inside the ropes at Hong Kong Golf Club against some of the biggest names in the game as part of a new initiative for 2019, designed to raise funds for local charities.

Beat the Pro will see 20 amateur golfers go head-to-head with the pros on the par-3 12th hole of the Championship Course on Saturday 30 November, with prizes available to any golfer that is able to better the pros’ tee-shots.

With places available to players from Hong Kong Golf Club and the Hong Kong Golf Association’s junior development programmes and the broader golfing community, members of the public are required to a make a charitable donation to participate, with places awarded to the highest bidders.

All proceeds will be donated to the tournament’s charitable partner, Operation Santa Claus, with local beneficiaries set to include the Hong Kong Paediatric Rheumatism Association, Project Space and Home of Loving Faithfulness.

Organisers have also announced that the tournament’s principal fundraising initiative, the Hong Kong Open Charity Cup, will return to Hong Kong Golf Club on Tuesday 3 December.

With more than HK$ 6 million raised to-date, the Charity Cup enables members of the public to play on the tournament’s unique composite course in a Stableford Better Ball team format. With breakfast or lunch included, a host of on-course prizes to be won, and all proceeds going to Operation Santa Claus, this is one for the golfer’s festive diary! Entry for a team of two in the Hong Kong Open Charity Cup cost HK$10,000.

The tournament will also continue to provide free access and coaching clinics to a number of local schools and organisations, ensuring the annual showpiece continues to leave a lasting legacy among all sections of the community.

Hong Kong Golf Club will once again make entry free of charge for the first two days of play. And with a host of activities for families to enjoy, including golf coaching, bouncy castles, face-painting, magicians, interactive games and the opportunity to participate in live Question & Answer sessions with players in the Spectator Village, the tournament once again promises a great day out for everyone.

Speaking about the tournament’s community focus in 2019, William Doo, Jr., Captain of Hong Kong Golf Club, said: “The Club is very proud to have supported a great number of charities over the years and we’re pleased to have been able to extend this to the Hong Kong Open through the Charity Cup and, now, ‘Beat the Pro’.

The funds raised for Operation Santa Claus through these initiatives and others will go to extremely worthy causes in Hong Kong, which is very important to us, and with spectators under the age of 21 getting free entry on all tournament days, we hope to see many youngsters and their families at Fanling for a really fun and entertaining week.”

And in a further boost to this year’s event, two of the most popular players on tour added their names to the stellar field that is set to arrive in Hong Kong at the end of the month.

Miguel Ángel Jiménez will be returning to the course that has brought him so much success over the years. The flamboyant Spaniard is a four-time winner on the Championship Course, putting him on level pegging with Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Yung-yo as the tournament’s most prolific champion.

A hugely popular figure both on and off the golf course, his 2005, 2008, 2012 and 2014 victories ensure that his name will forever be associated with one of Asia’s most prestigious titles.

Kiradech Aphibarnrat also joins the star-studded field at Hong Kong Golf Club. With his best result at Hong Kong Golf Club coming in a seventh-place tie in 2011, he’ll be looking to get his name to the top of the leader board come Sunday.

Kenneth Lam, President of the Hong Kong Golf Association, added: “We welcome the inclusion of these charitable initiatives in this year’s tournament. In addition to providing a number of the Hong Kong Golf Association’s elite junior golfers with inside-the-ropes experience in one of Asia’s leading golf tournaments, Beat the Pro is a fantastic way to promote the game in a way that few other sports can offer.

“We also look forward to welcoming Miguel and Kiradech back to Hong Kong this month. They are both fine ambassadors for the game and will, I’m sure, be followed closely by many out on course.”

Hosted by Hong Kong Golf Club, which is celebrating its 130th anniversary this year, the Hong Kong Open kicks off the European Tour’s 2020 Race to Dubai and continues to play a decisive role in shaping the Asian Tour’s Habitat for Humanity Standings as it is one of the last few remaining events on the Tour’s 2019 schedule.

Ends.


Published on October 15, 2019

By Olle Nordberg, Former Asian Tour and European Tour professional

This week is the start of PGA Tour’s Asian Swing with the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges on Jeju island in Korea, and for the Asian Tour members taking part this week, or in the following two events the ZOZO Championship in Japan and WGC-Champions in China, they truly have a chance to catapult their careers to the next level of professional golf.

Not only do all the events offer prize money equal to or in excess of US$9,750,000, no cuts and huge Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points, but also maybe more importantly for players aspiring to play on the PGA Tour, FedEx Cup points.

The Asian Tour members in the field at CJ Cup this week in Korea are Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Jazz Janewattananond, Yikeun Chang, K.J. Choi, Soomin Lee, Taehee Lee, Sanghyun Park and Kyongjun Moon, and they will be battling it out with defending champion and world number one Brooks Koepka among others.

At next week’s ZOZO Championship in Japan we will have Jazz Janewattanaond, Yosuke Asaji, Sanghuyn Park, Shaun Norris and Tomoharu Otsuki flying the Asian Tour flag, playing against a stellar field that includes Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama.

For the following week’s WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, Jazz Janewattanaond, Scott Hend, Jbe Kruger and Masahiro Kawamura have qualified via the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit. We will also see members Kurt Kitayama and Justin Harding making it into the event based on their Race to Dubai ranking on the European Tour, and Jake McLeod from the PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit.

Starting with the importance of OWGR points, this week has a projected 52 points going to the winner compared to 16 for most Asian Tour events. This means for example that the lone Asian Tour member participating in all three Asian Swing events, Jazz Janewattananond, could crack the top-50 on the OWGR with a top-five finish this or any of the following two weeks. The top-50 mark will be very important at the end of the year as it means that an invitation to The Masters Tournament in April next year will be forthcoming in the mail.

For the players trying to use their Asian Tour performance as a springboard to the PGA Tour without having to spend a year on the Korn Ferry Tour, collecting FedEx Cup points is maybe the most important part of playing these events.

The system the PGA Tour uses to qualify for their Tour is different than most, since there is no Q-School access directly to the Tour. You either have to be in the top-25 of the Korn Ferry Tour points list or the top-25 of the three event Korn Ferry Tour Finals points list.

One way to get in this Finals series is to have equal to or more FedEx Cup points than the 200th player in the FedEx Cup Standings at the end of the 2020 PGA Tour season, and this year it took 95 points to get in the Korn Ferry Finals series.

A solo-sixth in any of the three events would be worth 100-105 points and surpass this mark, although there is no guarantee that it would be exactly the same points needed to qualify next season.

Another mark to aim for is 150th on the 2019 FedEx Cup points list, as this would entitle players to “Special Temporary Membership” on the PGA Tour for the 2020 season. In this case 288 points will be needed to reach this status, and this would allow a player unlimited starts and invites to PGA Tour events which is otherwise capped at 12 events and seven sponsor’s invites respectively per season.

This might be more important than you would think, because it was an issue that double Asian Tour winner Justin Harding ran into this year trying to secure his PGA Tour card. In good shape on the FedEx Cup points list after a tied-12th at The Masters but shy of Temporary Membership status, he was forced to skip events he was eligible for to not go over the 12-event maximum ahead of upcoming Majors and WGC’s.

Of course, the most important number would be to earn enough FedEx Cup points to be in the top-125 at the end of next season and be fully exempt for the following, and in the 2019 this took 376 points. Not something that you could earn with one hot week as even a solo-second at either of these three events would only make 300-315 points.

Looking at a couple scenarios using our Order of Merit leader Jazz as an example since he is the only one playing all three events:

  • A solo-sixth finish in all three events would give him 305 FedEx Cup points and be eligible for Special Temporary Membership status and unlimited events and invites.
  • A solo-fourth finish in all three events would earn him 410 FedEx Cup points which likely would be enough to become a full PGA Tour member for the 2021 season.

Even if these high marks are not met at the conclusion of these three big events, a top finish or two would definitely give a player a head start as several of them will likely be playing other events during the 2020 season where they would be able to pick up points.


Published on October 8, 2019

Here is what the Mercuries Taiwan Masters winner Suradit Yongcharoenchai had in the bag last week:

Driver: Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero 9* Shaft: Basileus Z II 60 TX
Fairway1: Callaway Epic Flash 13.5* Shaft: Mitsubishi-Chemical Kuro Kage XT 70 X
Hb: Roma Ro Ray Type R Hybrid 21* Shaft: Basileus Z UT 80 S
Irons: Fourteen FH 900 (4-P) Shaft: TrueTemper Dynamic Gold AMT X100
Wedge1: Fourteen RM22 47*
Wedge2: Fourteen RM22 50*
Wedge3: Fourteen RM22 58*
Putter: Odyssey O Works 5 Red
Ball: Titleist Pro V1 x (2019)
Shoe: FootJoy
Cap: Fourteen Bag: Fourteen
Glove: PG


Note: No 3 Iron


Published on October 2, 2019

By Olle Nordberg, Former Asian Tour and European Tour professional

The Tournament

The Mercuries Taiwan Masters is the longest consecutively running full-field event on the Asian Tour, having been part of the schedule since 2004. Inaugurated in 1987 the tournament has seen many winners that are well known to Asian golf-fans, such as Thaworn Wiratchant, Boonchu Ruangkit, Lu Wen-teh, Scott Hend, Gerry Norquist and Hsieh Min-nan.

Hsieh Min-nan, or “Tony Hsieh” as he is also known, is one of the true legends of golf in Chinese Taipei. He won this event in 1992 at the age of 52, and incredibly also made the cut in 2010 at the age of 70 when he finished tied for 47th. A remarkable feat against a field where many players were less than half his age!

Tournament host Mr. George Wong is graciously offering up prize money of US$900,000 this year, an increase of US$50,000 from last year, of which US$180,000 will go to the champion.

Last year’s event was won by first-time winner Adilson Da Silva of Brazil who held off Berry Henson and Lin Wen-tang to win by a shot on seven-under-par 281.

The Course

The Taiwan Golf and Country Club, or “Tamsui” as most of the players call it, is an old-school Asian course with tree-lined fairways requiring precision off the tee. An ability to work the ball both ways also helps since there are some doglegs to navigate.

The greens are also notoriously difficult to read, as the strong grain as well as the slope has to be taken into consideration. This will give players with past experience on these putting-surfaces an advantage over first timers and players used to bent grass greens.

The course plays to a par of 72 at 6,923 yards, so it’s not necessarily a course where power off the tee will be a big factor. Keeping the ball in the fairway however will be, as proven by famously accurate driver of the ball Da Silva last year.

The Contenders

Adilson Da Silva

Defending champion Da Silva will likely be a tough guy to beat this week, as his record from the last few years of the tournament has been outstanding. In addition to wining last year, he also finished tied-second in 2017 and tied-third in 2015.

Although he is yet to record a top-10 finish on the Asian Tour this season, a driving accuracy percentage of 84.10% so far this season should give Da Silva a great chance to excel on this course once again.

Yikeun Chang

One of the most in-form players recently on the Asian Tour with a win at Yeangder TPC and a runner-up the week before, Chang also has a lot to play for this week.

Currently in seventh place in the WGC-HSBC Champions qualification standings that end this week, he needs at least a solo-third finish this week to surpass Masahiro Kawamura who currently holds the last spot.

Not an easy task, but he’s certainly playing well enough to be up to the challenge.

Scott Vincent

One of the top contenders every week he tees it up, Vincent came close to getting his breakthrough Asian Tour win at the Shinhan Donghae Open two weeks ago after finishing third.

Vincent is in good form and has had good results at this course the last two years with a tied-seventh in 2018 and a tied-second in 2017.

Add a win on the AbemaTV Tour in Japan earlier this year and six other top-10s this season, and the case for the Zimbabwean gets even more solid.

As with Chang above, Vincent also needs to finish no worse than third for a chance to qualify for the WGC-HSBC Champions.

Lu Wei-chih

With a tied-eight in the Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup as his best result so far in 2019, Lu came close to a top finish again last week in the Panasonic Open Golf Championship in Japan.

In tied-second after two rounds and only one shot out of the lead, Lu was looking for another top finish until a poor round on Sunday derailed his bid.

Having won this event in 2016 and a tied-ninth in 2018 after coming back from brain surgery, Lu will have all the necessary experience to challenge for this title again this year.

Rashid Khan

With three top-10s this year on the Asian Tour and two wins at home on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), Khan is getting back to the form that saw him become a two-time winner on the Asian Tour in 2014.

Currently 27th on the Order of Merit with US$83,467 Khan has already regained his Tour card that he lost last year, and the tied-second in his last event could mean he is ready to come back into the winner’s circle once again.

Lin Wen-tang

The winner of this event in 2009 and with three top-10s here the last three years, Lin certainly has all the necessary local knowledge to do well again.

He was the leader after 54 holes at last month’s Yeangder TPC outside of Taipei and had his best tournament of the season finishing fourth. Always a threat playing on home soil.


Published on

Here is what the Panasonic OPEN Golf Championship winner Toshinori Muto had in the bag last week:

Driver: Mizuno Prototype 9.5* Shaft: Fujikura Speeder TR 757 X
Fairway: Titleist 917F2 15* Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 7 TX
Hb1: Mizuno GX Hybrid 19* Shaft: Nippon Shaft NS PRO PROTOTYPE System 3
Hb2: Mizuno GX Hybrid 21* Shaft: Nippon Shaft NS PRO PROTOTYPE System 3
Irons: Mizuno Mizuno Pro 120 (4-P) Shaft: TrueTemper Dynamic Gold
Wedge1: Mizuno S18 54*
Wedge2: Mizuno S18 60*
Putter: Odyssey Black Series ix #1
Ball: Titleist Pro V1 x (2019)
Shoe: FootJoy

Glove: Mizuno
Cap: Mizuno

Bag: Mizuno

Note: No 3 Iron


Published on September 29, 2019

Catch up on all the highlights from the final round of the Panasonic OPEN Golf Championship.


Published on September 28, 2019

Published on September 27, 2019

Published on September 25, 2019

The Tournament

The Panasonic Open Golf Championship is co-sanctioned with Japan Golf Tour Organization (JGTO) and this year will be the 10th edition of the event. The tournament has been played since 2008, with a two-year break in 2014-15, and has during this period been mostly seen Japanese winners.

Australian Brendan Jones won the event in 2010, and after a string of Japanese winners we saw Rahil Gangjee of India clinch the title by one shot last year.

Korean player Junggon Hwang playing in the second-last group had already posted -13 after a final round of five-under-par 66, and Gangjee, tied for the lead playing the last, needed a birdie to go one better.

After leaving himself a long bunker-shot for his third from the greenside bunker on the par-five 18th, Gangjee played a brilliant shot to two feet to secure a birdie and his first win in 14 years.

The purse this year is ¥150,000,000 or approximately US$1,338,067, and the winner will take home ¥30,000,000 or roughly US$267,613.

The Course

The Higashi Hirono Golf Club outside of Kobe is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and has previously hosted the Panasonic Open Golf Championship in 2012 when Masanori Kobayashi won the title.

The immaculately manicured course has some of the best fairways anywhere on Tour, and players will be well advised to keep the ball in the short stuff off the tee. The thick rough can be quite penalizing in certain spots, and the hilly course can give players a lot of uneven lies after wayward shots.

Not an overly long par-71 course at 7,020 yards, it will reward good ball-strikers as it will not be an easy course to scramble your way around. When the event was last held here Kobayashi’s winning score was 17-under-par, and it required one-under-par to make the halfway cut.

The Contenders

Rahil Gangjee

The last few weeks has seen defending champion Gangjee returning to the form that won him this title in April last year, with a tied-18th at last week’s Shinhan Donghae Open and a tied-10th at the Fujisankei Classic the previous week.

When asked about his thoughts on being defending champion this week, Gangjee said he was done being defending champion and ready to be a champion again. A confident answer from the 40-year-old Indian.

Jazz Janewattanaond

While Thai star Jazz is coming off two events that are a bit off the high standards he set early in the year, the impeccable ball-striking he has displayed this year should be a huge asset this week if he can find his touch on the greens again.

With two wins this season at the SMBC Singapore Open and the Kolon Korea Open, and 11 top-10s in all events he’s played, the Asian Tour Order of Merit leader is always a threat to win when his putter gets hot.

Scott Vincent

Having come close to winning the Shinhan Donghae Open yet again last week after finishing third, Vincent is obviously in good form.

With a win on the AbemaTV Tour in japan earlier this year and six other top-10s this season, the Zimbabwean will be looking for a breakthrough first Asian Tour title this week.

Having spent much of this season on the Japan Golf Tour, Vincent should also be well prepared for the course conditions this week.

Ryo Ishikawa

After a couple lean years without a victory, Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa is on the rise again with two wins on the Japan Golf Tour.

Ishikawa won the Japan PGA Championship and Shigeo Nagashima Invitational SEGASAMMY Cup in consecutive starts and has since posted a fifth and a tied-sixth in his last two tournaments.

He is currently leading the Japan Golf Tour Money Ranking and has climbed to 110th on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) after being ranked 300th in the end of June this year, his lowest position since 2008.

Chan Kim

Coming back from being out with an injury the whole 2018 season, the 2013 Asian Q-School medalist Kim seems to have had no problem picking up where he left off in 2017 when he won three times and finished third on the Japan Golf Tour Order of Merit.

Since May he has recorded seven top-10s in all events played, including second place finishes in the Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open and last week’s Shinhan Donghae Open.

Kim will be aiming to go one better this week and seeing him return to the winner’s circle this week would not be a surprise.


Published on September 22, 2019
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