Liang, Bae, Kim, Hendry and Felton to tee up at Tour's season-opening event
Jakarta, March 9, 2011: OneAsia Order of Merit winner, China's Liang Wenchong, is all set to tee off at this month's Indonesia PGA Championship along with four other OneAsia Titans.
The Tour's season-opening event, worth US$1 million in prize money, will feature a host of champions including Bae Sang-moon and Kim Dae-hyun of Korea, New Zealand's Michael Hendry and Australian Kim Felton.
The star-studded event, which also features other elite golfers from all over the region, will be played at the Imperial Klub Golf in Jakarta from March 24-27.
Liang, who enjoyed an outstanding season on OneAsia last year, returns to the circuit with much enthusiasm about the Tour's growth. He will head a 20-strong Chinese contingent and sees the tournament in Indonesia as an exciting start for his compatriots.
"The development of Chinese golf needs good professional players, and OneAsia is the soil for this development," said Liang. "This tournament is one of more international events this year and this is a great leap forward. With this increase, there will be more opportunities to communicate and learn from international experts,” said Liang.
For the first time, the Chinese number one will go head-to-head with Korea's young guns, the big-hitting Kim and confident Bae .
"They are the future of Korean golf and I believe they will continue in the footsteps of K.J. Choi and Y.E. Yang. There is much to learn from how these young Korean players develop. I hope to be in the same group as them at some point during the week," added the Chinese star.
Kim, who emerged victorious at the GS Caltex Maekyung on OneAsia and was also last year's Order of Merit winner in Korea, has been working hard on refining his famous big-hitting swing for his Indonesian debut.
"I am quite confident to win this competition," said Kim. "I have put in a lot of effort since December and hopefully I can play more consistently and skilfully this year. I'll just do my best. And I intend to participate in OneAsia events as much as possible, as long as my schedule permits."
Good friend Bae, a two-time winner on OneAsia, also looks forward to his first Indonesian event, which will kick-start his season.
"This is my first competition this year and I will play it with peace of mind," Bae said. "I'll be playing mainly JGTO but I also intend to play in more OneAsia events, and I hope to put on a good show ."
Bae is one of the region's most exciting young players and was the second player after Liang to win two OneAsia titles: The 2009 Kolon-Hana Bank Korea Open and the 2010 SK Telecom Open. He is currently ranked third on Korea's Order of Merit after having topped it for two consecutive years.
The two stars from Daegu are looking forward to playing with China's best from Zhongshan.
"Liang is a really great player, especially his putting," said Kim. "His short game is competitive with even big players from the European Tour, in my eyes."
"I am aware that he is an outstanding player," Bae agreed. "He is strong on short game and his forte is unflappable play. I have not played with him and look forward to this opportunity - My attitude is to learn from top-class players like him."
Liang will also battle it out once again with Hendry, who propelled his name into the spotlight with a seven-stroke victory ahead of Liang at the Indonesia Open presented by Enjoy Jakarta on OneAsia last year.
Hendry has led the New Zealand Tour's Order of Merit for the past two years, and finished third on the OneAsia Order of Merit after Liang and Kim.
Felton also jets to Jakarta this month to make a play for the tournament's purse. The freshly-married Felton, who took home the winner's check at last year's Midea China Classic, is looking forward to a fruitful season after having come back from a difficult period in which he spent much of his time away from competitive golf due to a drop in form.
The Indonesia PGA Championship is part of an exciting new initiative spearheaded by tournament promoter Rajawali Sports International to raise the profile of golf in the country.
It is one of 13 events on this year's OneAsia schedule, which also features the Indonesia Open presented by Enjoy Jakarta later in the season. 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 across the Asia Pacific.
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.
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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