Jakarta, 15 March 2011 - Teen titan Han Chang-won of Korea will make his eagerly awaited professional tournament debut at next week’s Indonesia PGA Championship on OneAsia.
The 2009 Asian Amateur champion underscored his huge promise by winning the OneAsia Qualifying School in January by six strokes to earn full playing rights for the 2011 season which will feature 13 tournaments each offering a minimum of US$1 million in prize money.
Han faces a baptism of fire on OneAsia with the Indonesia PGA Championship attracting a stellar field including 2010 Order of Merit champion Liang Wenchong of China and a quartet of other champions from last year – Koreans Bae Sang-moon and Kim Dae-hyun, Kiwi Michael Hendry and Kim Felton of Australia.
While the confident 19-year-old will not be fazed by challenging the best players in Asia-Pacific at Imperial Klub Golf from March 24-27, he is not putting himself under any pressure to achieve instant success.
“I have no great expectations for my first tournament,” he said. “But hopefully I will start out with a good result and keep going on smoothly (for the rest of the season).”
Han said that winning the OneAsia Qualifying School at Mission Hills Resort, Hainan, had provided him with a golden chance to shine in his first year as a professional.
"OneAsia is getting bigger and stronger, and there are many opportunities for me to grow. Now I can look forward to playing with the many great and famous professionals who have been playing on OneAsia. This is a dream for me,” he said.
“I’m planning to participate in all events on OneAsia this year. The goal for this year is to make the cut in all events with steady results, and hopefully I can achieve several top-10 finishes.”
Part of Han’s reward for winning the Asian Amateur Championship in 2009 was a prized spot in the field at last year’s Masters and although he missed the cut at Augusta his rounds of 79 and 76 saw him tie with former champion Sandy Lyle of Scotland.
Han, a university student who will have to juggle his studies and golf schedule, hopes to build on that experience by playing alongside the likes of three-time OneAsia winner Liang and Thai legends Thaworn Wiratchant and Prayad Marksaeng, who will be gunning for a maiden title on the booming circuit at the Indonesia PGA Championship.
"I have heard that Liang is very diligent and hardworking," he said. "This is something I wish to learn from him and it would be an honour to be matched up with China's best player at one of OneAsia's tournaments."
Imperial Klub Golf, the tournament venue, is one of Jakarta’s premier golf courses and boasts a championship course designed by British architect Desmond Muirhead.
The Indonesia PGA Championship 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 OneAsia is available internationally on ESPN Star Sports, Jupiter Golf Network, SBS Golf Channel, Fox International, Network Ten, Sky Sports NZ, ESPN3 and America One in the USA, and ViaSat and Bloomberg Television among others in Europe.
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