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Nazvi Careem

THE Hong Kong Golf Open, the territory's oldest professional sporting event, will take place in November irrespective of whether or not a title sponsor is secured.

  Local promoters Spectrum have underwritten the tournament which was in danger of being cancelled after failure to sign a major sponsor.

  The event is expected to offer around US$250,000 to US$300,000 in prize money and is scheduled to be held at the end of November at the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club.

  The tournament could also feature players taking part in the recently launched Asian Professional Golfers Association (APGA).

  South Korea's Park Nam-sin won the first tournament of the inaugural APGA Tour in the US$200,000 Sriracha International at Pattaya, Thailand on Sunday .

  The Hong Kong Open is the first leg of the traditional Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, rivals of the APGA, which has not scheduled any tournaments during the week of the local event.

  Spectrum president Lincoln Venancio said: 'The Hong Kong Open will take place in November.

  'Although we have yet to find a title sponsor, we hope to secure one. We also have several subsidiary sponsors.

  'The APGA have kept a week at the end of November free to avoid clashing with the Hong Kong Open and we hope that players taking part in the tour will compete in Hong Kong.'   Venancio added that the tournament was hoping to attract at least two big-name players to Fanling.

  The event, from November 30 to December 3, will be sandwiched between two APGA events, the Asian Open in Delhi and the China Classic at Lotus Hills in Guangdong.

  Hong Kong has now gone almost 16 months without a major golf tournament - the longest barren spell in the 30 years of professional golf in the territory.

  The last Hong Kong Open, sponsored by British American Tobacco (BAT), was in February last year, a US$300,000 tournament won by South African David Frost.

  A few months after the event, which was deemed a huge success, BAT decided not to take up its option to continue backing the event.

  The Open has enjoyed a charmed life over the past decade, with sponsors coming and going with alarming regularity.

  On several occasions, the tournament has come close to being shelved altogether.

  For the best part of this year, it seemed that the Open would finally meet its doom.

  But Venancio believes that Spectrum has come up with a package that will ensure this year's Hong Kong Open would provide top-quality entertainment.

  This is Spectrum's final year as promoters of the Hong Kong Open.

  It is understood that the promoter kept its part of the bargain with the Hong Kong Golf Association (HKGA) by providing sufficient financial guarantees which would ensure that the tournament would go ahead without a title sponsor.

  Venancio said it was too early to say which big-name players Spectrum would be targeting, but he hopes that the tournament will feature at least two top-20 ranked players.

  Should Spectrum fail to land a title sponsor, the company would be forced to foot the bill for prize money, organisation costs and possibly even appearance fees.

   That would require a financial injection of at least $4 million, not including ancillary costs.

  It is believed that the APGA, which is keen to take over, would not stand in the way of its players who would want to compete at the Hong Kong Open, traditionally regarded as one of the most prestigious stops on the Asian circuit.

  The APGA, set up in July last year to provide Asian players with their own professional circuit and one not dominated by overseas players, is understood to be eager to add the Hong Kong Open to its tour.

 The APGA has also stated that the event would still belong to the local association.

  The territory was originally due to stage one of the APGA's four 'major' tournaments as part of its 20-leg calendar.

  The Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club was slated to host a US$500,000 tournament in September with other majors to be held in Dubai, India and Thailand.

  But those plans had to be cancelled after club members objected to the move.

  It was also believed, at the time, that the HKGA had informed the territory's clubs not to host any tournament connected with the APGA.

  Clearwater Bay, however, said it was not influenced by the local governing body.

  In any event, Hong Kong was left out of the APGA's inaugural tour calendar.

  Ironically, the APGA was formed in the territory by nine regional Professional Golf Associations, including that of Hong Kong.



All systems go for Open