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Omega Championship to be a fitting end to a great year

The last event of the 2006 Omega China Tour season will be a suitable climax to a truly productive year for Chinese professional golf, according to a senior executive from the China Golf Association's marketing partners World Sport Group.

The Omega Championship, which will be staged at the Tianan Golf Club in Beijing from 26th to 29th October, will be the final event of the six US$100,000 tournaments scheduled for 2006 and the 10th since the Tour started just over 13 months ago. In that short time Nick Mould, the Senior Vice-President of World Sport Group, believes most of the players on the tour have improved beyond all reasonable expectations.

"Of course when we began this project with the CGA we had great visions and dreams about where it would lead, but I don¡®t think I ever imagined that the changes would be so swift. Of course, injecting the amount of prize money we have (US$1 million) has made a difference, but I think the platform the tour has given the players has helped them in many more ways than we could have hoped," he said.

"The signs were there back in April when the players appeared at the Hainan Leg fitter and more determined and more positive in their attitudes. And it seems they have responded to every challenge that the tour has thrown at them since then, and absorbed every single lesson they could possibly learn from each of our events. The Omega Championship will be a great showcase for them to demonstrate just how much they have developed through playing regularly on the Omega China Tour and through being able to increasingly focus their training and practice on the art and science of playing tournament golf."

The Omega China Tour is committed to a steady expansion, which will see eight events on the 2007 calendar and 10 in 2008. During that time, Mr Mould believes that the rate of development of the current crop of young players, those now in their mid-20s, could develop into the finest generation China has ever had.

"It would seem as if the 'third generation' are benefiting most of all from the experience of regular tournament golf on the Omega China Tour: players like Li Chao, Huang Mingjie, Yuan Hao, Huang Yonghuan, Liao Guiming, and Shang Lei," he said.

"These are a group of players who have still not reached their peak; players who potentially have another five years to 10 years at the top. If we can continue to grow and continue to give them the chance to play tournaments regularly on tough courses, and to test them in fierce competition on a consistent basis, they could definitely prove to be a golden generation for Chinese golf."

October 17, 2006