Golf Club comes to the rescue of Hong Kong Open again
For the second successive year, the Fanling host contributes to prize money but it is not enough to attract the world's best players to the city
Lacking a title sponsor for the second year in a row, the Hong Kong Open will once again rely on the Hong Kong Golf Club for a significant portion of its US$1.3 million prize money - a paltry sum insufficient to attract the world's best players to Fanling next week, admitted a European Tour official.
"It is difficult without a significant prize fund to get the leading players," said European Tour spokeswoman Vicky Jones. "While we have got a stronger field than last year, including Miguel Angel Jimenez and Ernie Els, there is no doubt that prize money plays a big part and is a factor when the big-name players look at their calendar at the start of the year and make their schedule."
The Hong Kong Open is going through a period of transition and the priority over the last two years has been on its survival
All of Europe's Ryder Cup stars will be playing elsewhere. Six of them: Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson, Thomas Bjorn, Jamie Donaldson, Victor Dubuisson and Stephen Gallacher, will be among the 16-strong field for the Volvo World Match Play - also sanctioned by the European Tour - at the London Golf Club in Kent, which clashes with the local event.
Jones said: "The Hong Kong Open is going through a period of transition and the priority over the last two years has been on its survival. It has not been without a significant amount of work that the Hong Kong Open has remained on the European Tour and the Asian Tour."
Hong Kong's oldest professional sporting event which began in 1959 - its first sponsor was the - became part of the European Tour in 2002.
There was hope that a date change from December would help in netting a sponsor, moving the event closer to the end of the European Tour season, but that has not come to pass.
"These are challenging times and finding a title sponsor has not been easy," Jones said. "Fortunately the Hong Kong Golf Club has come in once again and will provide the majority of the prize fund as they did last year."
The European Tour is now looking at the possibility of a different model of sponsorship for the tournament. "In the past, the event has always had a title sponsor but looking ahead, we look to structure sponsorship differently and have a clean title with a number of significant partners beneath that," Jones said.
Since Swiss bank UBS bailed out in 2012, the tournament has seen a massive reduction in prize money from a high of US$2.75 million in 2011.
The government's Mega Events Fund also chipped in with HK$8 million and HK$15 million in 2011 and 2012. But last year all these sources dried up, leaving the Hong Kong Golf Club to come in at the last minute and rescue the tournament.
Spaniard Jimenez will be seeking a record fifth title.
He will have to contend with American David Lipsky and India's Anirban Lahiri, the two top-ranked players on the Asian Tour this season as well as South African Els.
