After a three-year sabbatical from tournament golf, tomorrow (Thursday) sees Hong Kong Golf Club host the $1 million World City Championship on the Asian Tour.
132 players are in the field consisting of 17 tournament invitations along with representation from the PGA Tour of Australasia, Hong Kong Golf Association as well as the Asian Tour and Asian Development Tour (ADT).
Headliners in the field include Henrik Stenson (Swe) and Ian Poulter (Eng) and a strong regional representation.
In addition to the prizefund, this week’s event offers players the chance to play themselves into the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in July. This is one of three Asian tournaments selected for The R&A’s Open Qualifying Series (OQS), with four spots available to this year’s final major, for those not already qualified.
'Feeling better'
Dubai-based Shiv Kapur (Ind) is in the field and told Gulf News, “I am feeling better this week, I was still struggling from my bout of illness last week. This is one of my favourite golf courses and the history and tradition here remains intact. It’s great to see a classic layout that has withstood the test of time and technology. In spite of being one of the shortest courses we play all year, the winning score rarely goes below 15 under par. It’s a great example of a course set up and green complexes that are still relevant with the modern ball and golf clubs - a big debate these days. The course this week is set up as a par 70 at 6,710 yards. I’ve been playing here for 20 years now and it still presents a great challenge and I’m feeling good entering this week and hoping this is the week that gets me going.”
Shiv tees off in his first round at 12.50 pm. Also in the field is fellow Dubai Golden VISA Awardee Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) who tees off tomorrow at 12 noon.
The World City Championship can be watched live on Dubai Sports Channel (DSC 2) as follows (UAE times):
Thursday 23rd March: from 9.30 am.
Friday 24th March: from 9.30 am.
Saturday 25th March: from 8.00 am.
Sunday 26th March: from 8.00 am.
