Jakarta, February 8: The inaugural Indonesia PGA Championship will raise the curtain on OneAsia this year as part of an exciting new initiative to raise the profile of golf in the country.
The US$1million tournament will be played from March 24 to 27 at Imperial Klub Golf - situated just outside of Jakarta.
A prolific field of top professional golfers from the region will compete in the event which will also feature all of Indonesia’s leading players.
The Indonesia PGA Championship is one of 13 tournaments on this year’s OneAsia schedule, which also features the Indonesian Open later in the year. OneAsia was launched in 2009 so that for the first time the region could boast a year long schedule of million dollar events featuring the elite players from Asia Pacific.
The success of OneAsia caught the eye of Indonesia’s tourism authorities who are lending their support to the Indonesia PGA Championship.
“The game of golf is once again finding its feet in Indonesia after over a decade of being in the shadows. The sport is of course a perfect vehicle to help attract tourists and as Indonesia has so many great golfing venues we feel it is timely to get involved. There is no better way than to help do this than by supporting top international golf tournaments like the Indonesia PGA Championship,” said Mr. Ir. Jero Wacik, Minister of Culture & Tourism in Indonesia.
The tournament will be showcased on OneAsia’s television platform with live coverage for four hours a day across all four tournament days, and broadcast to over 400 million homes in more than 40 countries.
Full coverage of the event will be available internationally on ESPN Star Sports, Jupiter Golf Network, SBS Golf Channel, Fox International, Sky Sports NZ, ESPN3, America One, ViaSat and Bloomberg Television among others in Europe.
The Indonesia PGA Championship is promoted by Rajawali Sports International who are planning to make a huge impact on the golf industry in Indonesia.
Their OneAsia tournament is their flagship event while they are also in the process of planning six other local tournaments this year. Three of these will be held on the ASEAN PGA Tour and three will be staged on the PGPI Tour.
“Our objective is to promote Indonesia and enhance its tourism industry through the game of golf. In particular we plan to do this by re-igniting professional golf in the country by setting up a strong back bone of tournaments,” said Martha D. Sidebang, President Director/CEO, Rajawali Sport International.
“We are in the process of finalizing details of these tournaments some of which will be held in Bali, Lombok, and Medan. However, our focus at the moment is on the Indonesia PGA Championship which will be one of the biggest and most lucrative golf tournaments held here,” added Sidebang.
OneAsia last visited Indonesia for its national Open in July of 2010 when New Zealander Michael Hendry triumphed. He finished ahead of second place Liang Wenchong from China - who went on to win the OneAsia Order of Merit title with earnings of US$560,737.
“We are thrilled to be returning to Indonesia especially and starting the year with a brand new tournament. This is just our third season and it is a measure of our success that we can quickly attract new sponsors and tournaments. We have increased our number of tournament to 13 this season compared with 10 in 2010 and we are very confident that we will announce even more events in this year,” said Mr Sang Y Chun, Chairman & Commissioner, OneAsia.
Last month OneAsia completed its first Qualifying School which saw 40 players earn their playing privileges for the season. Young Korean star Han Chang-won, aged 19, finished in first place. The 2009 Asian Amateur Champion will be one of the players to watch in the Indonesia PGA Championship.
The Founding members of OneAsia are the China Golf Association, the Korea Golf Tour, the Korea Golf Association and the PGA of Australia. The mission of OneAsia is not just to allow the region’s best players to gain access to more events, but to ultimately provide them with an alternative destination to the PGA Tour and The European Tour, thus retaining the best golfing talent in the region without compromising their development.
Imperial Klub Golf is one of Jakarta’s premier golf courses and boasts a championship course designed by British architect Desmond Muirhead.
The Club is located in the new town development of Lippo Karawaci and is 25 minutes from downtown Jakarta and 35 minutes from Jakarta’s international airport.
It has previously hosted two events on the ASEAN PGA Tour. Malaysian Danny Chia won the 2007 International Championship at Imperial while the following year Indonesia’s rising star Rory Hie claimed the same title.
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