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 South China Morning Post - became part of the European Tour in 2002.
