HK trio in first Beijing pro title
MANY times national champion Yau Sui-ming will spearhead a three-pronged Hongkong assault on the inaugural US$50,000 Beijing Open invitational in September.
Yau will be joined in the exclusive 24-man field in the Chinese capital's first major professional golfing event by fellow Hongkong internationals Dominique Boulet and Richard Kan.
Leading professionals from Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand are also likely to compete in the 36-hole event on September 8-9 which will be televised regionally.
Also expected to be in the starting line-up are a couple of China's leading male golfers who are currently considering turning professional.
Among them are Shenzhen Golf Club's Cheng Jun and Zhang Lianwei and Zhongshan Hot Spring Golf Club's Zheng Weinjun, who performed creditably alongside Australian Greg Norman in a Johnnie Walker Skins Game in Shanghai at the end of April.
Yau said he hoped the tournament would aid the development of the game in China.
Said Yau: ''For golf to develop in China the game needs to receive more exposure. There are many new courses being built and I'm sure we'll see more tournaments being played there in the not too distant future.'' The biggest professional golfing event staged in China was the Alfred Dunhill Cup Asia-Pacific qualifying tournament in 1988 when eight teams competed at the Zhongshan Hot Spring Club in Guangdong Province.
