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Golf’s Asian Tour Announces 2004 Schedule

Singapore, April 29: The Asian Tour, as the official sanctioning body for professional golf in the region, has announced its full schedule for 2004.

Asian Tour Chairman Kyi Hla Han said today the 2004 calendar includes a new event, the Carlsberg Masters Vietnam in Hanoi, and will see the return of the Tianjin TEDA Open in China after a lapse of four years and the ROC PGA Championship in Taipei.

Since its formation in January, the Asian Tour has staged seven events and began a bumper run of four tournaments in a row starting with this week’s inaugural Volkswagen Masters – China in Beijing.

The final chapter of the Asian PGA Tour was closed last month at the International Federation of PGA Tours meeting when its Executive Director Ramlan Haron formally announced that the Asian PGA was no longer the official sanctioning body for professional golf tournaments in the region, and endorsed the Asian Tour as the new sanctioning body.

The International Federation of PGA Tours agreed to provide world ranking points for all Asian Tour-sanctioned events and accepted the Asian Tour’s application to be part of the Federation.

Han said: ‘I have been working closely with our Chief Executive Louis Martin and we are delighted to announce our full schedule for 2004. By the time the season comes to a close in December, a minimum of 21 tournaments, with prize money of US$11.3 million would have been played. This will mark a new record for Asia,’ said Myanmar’s Han.

‘We have received a positive response from the market and have ongoing discussions with various sponsors and promoters for more tournaments which augurs well for the future of the Asian Tour and our playing membership.’

Asian Tour stalwarts such as Thongchai Jaidee, Jyoti Randhawa and Zhang Lian-wei will go head to head with leading international stars over the next few weeks. The US$300,000 Volkswagen Masters – China, headlining Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Phillip Price, got the ball rolling in Beijing today.

The Asian Tour will then head to the popular Macau Open, with Asia’s best, along with Zhang bidding for a record third title, and world number eight Padraig Harrington. Following this, the Asian Tour returns to the Middle Kingdom for the BMW Asian Open, a US$1.5 million event which will feature home hero Zhang, Korea’s Choi Kyung-ju, fresh from a third-place finish at the Masters and Australian legend Greg Norman. Harrington is the defending champion.

The BMW-backed event at Tomson Golf Club in Shanghai will be the first of two remaining events which will be jointly sanctioned by the Asian and European Tours this year.

The Asian Tour will head full-speed to Korea for the SK Telecom Open in Seoul from May 20-23 where Choi, better known as KJ, won last year’s title and will be defending again, before taking its traditional summer break.

The Asian Tour will resume with the US$175,000 ROC PGA Championship in Taipei in August, followed by the Tianjin TEDA Open in China, an event last staged in 1999.

Several other regular stops that will be featured on the Asian Tour include Mercuries Masters in Taiwan, the second staging of the Sanya Open in Hainan Island, China before heading to Hanoi for the inaugural US$200,000 Carlsberg Masters Vietnam at Chi Linh Star Golf and Country Club.

‘It is tremendous that the Asian Tour will welcome a new event in Vietnam, which underlines the growth of the game across Asia. The return of the Tianjin event also reinforces China’s great leap in interest in the game as the Asian Tour will have five tournaments in the Middle Kingdom this year,’ said Han.

The Hero Honda Masters in India, scheduled for the third week of November, will mark the start of the Asian Tour’s closing stretch. Subsequently, the Volvo China Open, which will offer US$1 million in prize money and jointly sanctioned by the Asian and European Tours for the first time, will be held, followed by the season-ending Volvo Masters of Asia.

‘The Asian Tour was set up in January this year to ensure the future of playing professionals in Asia and the continued growth of golf in this region. We have received tremendous support from numerous sponsors, event promoters, national PGAs and golf associations who share the same vision as us which is to extensively promote the game with the intention of uplifting the standard of golf in Asia,’ said Han.

For more details contact:

Chuah Choo Chiang
Communications Manager
Asian Tour
T: 603 8025 9800
F: 603 8025 9801
E: chuah@asiantour.com
Visit us at www.asiantour.com