Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Indonesia Open 2010

Just when it looked like this year we had no Indonesia Open, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo came to the rescue of a national open that was first played in 1974 and that produced an inaugural winner in Philippines' pro golfer Ben Arda. The Indonesia Open went on to produce big-name winners such as Payne Stewart (1981), New Zealander Frank Nobilo in 1994 and 1997 and more recent Thai golfing great Tongchai Jaidee in 2009.


The Jakarta government started to become involved with the Indonesia Open in 2005, when it came in as one of the major sponsors and in doing so aimed at “going for the long haul”. Five years on, Enjoy Jakarta will act as the Presenting Sponsor for this year's national open that will unfold between 1 and 4 July at the Pantai Indah Kapuk course in North Jakarta. With a total purse of US$1 million, the Indonesia Open is placed in the top tier of national opens in Asia.


This year's tournament will be the fifth leg of an 11-edition "series", or "schedule" if you will, that is named OneAsia and that was founded in 2009 by the China Golf Association, the PGA of Australia, the Korean Golf Association and the Korea Golf Tour. Among the other events are the Thailand Open (Aug 26-29), the Kolon-Hana Bank Korea Open (Oct 7-10), the Australian Open (Dec 2-5) and finally the Australian PGA Championship that will take place between December 9 and 12. Over the 11 tournaments a total of US$ 12 million is up for grabs, making it OneAsia a tournament to participate in for Asian golfers.



Come July 1, in total 24 Indonesian pros and 6 Indonesian amateurs will battle it out with more than one hundred leading players from Korea, Australasia, China, Japan and South East Asia. A name that surely will attract a crowd is that of Japanese golfer Shingko Katayama, the man with the "cowboy" hat.


The tournament will unfold at the Damai Indah Golf – Pantai Indah Kapuk course, the exact same venue where Mikko Ilonen of Finland lifted the trophy in 2007. Known as "the Spirit of the Sea", this Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed layout has played host to many an international event with the Indonesia Open 2007 being the flag bearer.


The Indonesia Open will be televised live on all four tournament days and beamed across more than 40 countries reaching over 260 million homes in South East Asia.

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