Tuesday, April 1, 2014

New Indonesian Golf Tour For Pros And Amateurs Launched

Jakarta, April 1st 2014 - Today the third leg of a brand new golf tour will get underway at Emeralda Golf Club, just south of Jakarta.

For the first time Indonesia has its own professional golf tour, the Indonesian Golf Tour. It is an ambitious new professional golf circuit aimed at speeding the development of Indonesia’s up and coming golfers.

The playing field will comprise of 80 Indonesian Golf Professionals, 30 Male Amateurs, 20 Female Amateurs and 14 special invites marking the first time Indonesia has seen such a tour that allows for a playing field offering opportunities to both Amateurs and Golf Professionals at the same time.

A total of thirteen 3-day events will be hosted at selected courses in the greater Jakarta area with each boasting IDR 200,000,000 prize purses. All 13 events will earn ranking points for the participating golf professionals, which will set the stage for the Road to the Indonesian Golf Championship to be hosted at Jakarta Golf Club (Rawamangun) from December 10th – 13th this year.

The top 30 golf professionals and top 10 amateurs will play for the grand prize purse of IDR 500,000,000 with all golf professionals guaranteed winnings in the 4-day tournament as well as the three top professional securing themselves a country exemption spot on the Asian Development Tour for the 2015 season.

As a result of this new initiative for professional and amateur golf in Indonesia, close to 10 amateurs have converted their status to professional status in order to allow them to play for money on the Indonesian Golf Tour.
The Indonesia Golf Tour was officially launched on March 21st during a Press Conference in Jakarta, but two events, the PGP Classic at Senayan National Golf Club and the Indonesia Golf Challenge at Palm Hill Golf Club, were already held prior to this launch.

"The long term future for golf in Indonesia is not paying large sums to bring the world's superstars to play here but creating our own stars," Johannes Dermawan, the chairman of Professional Golf Tour Indonesia (PGTI) said at the launch event.

"We need to create more stars that we ourselves can be proud of, stars that the Indonesian people will flock to see and stars that will eventually play among the world's top golfers in the world's top tournaments. But we can only achieve this by giving our best and most promising golfers the opportunity to develop their competitive skills, by giving them the chance to compete regularly." added Dermawan.

Indonesian Golf Star, Rory Hie added, “The Road to the Indonesian Golf Championship will create a buzz factor on the Indonesian Golf Tour as players compete throughout the season to make it into the field for the final event. We thank the tournament organizers for supporting this positive development.”

During the Press Conference, Professional golfers from across the country were presented with the vision and objectives of The Indonesian Golf Tour and were encouraged to use its platform as a unique opportunity to improve their fortunes.

The launch was blessed with the presence of representatives from Persatuan Golf Indonesia (Indonesian Golf Association) and Badan Professional Olahraga Indonesia (Professional Sports Association of Indonesia) as well as many of Indonesia’s leading golf professionals, all of whom echoed the sentiments expressed above.

The Indonesian Golf Tour series brings the total number of Professional Golf events being hosted in Indonesia to 20 events, including 2 Asian Tour events (CIMB Niaga Indonesian Masters and Indonesia Open), 1 OneAsia event (Indonesian PGA Championship), 2 Asian Development Tour events (Linc Group Jakarta Classic and Linc Group Jakarta Invitational) and the Camry Invitational.

This is the first time Indonesia has seen so many professional golf events being hosted in a single year.

The 2014 schedule for the Indonesia Golf Tour:
NoDateEventVenue
1Jan 26-28PGP ClassicSenayan National GC
2Feb 18-20Indonesia Golf ChallengePalm Hill GC
3Apr 1-3Citra Sembilan SatuEmeralda GC
4May 6-8Indonesian Classic @LotusLakes Golf
5May 19-21JGC ClassicJakarta GC (Rawamangun)
6Jun 10-12Indonesian Classic @PG Modern
7Jun 17-19Indonesian Classic @Jababeka GCC
8Aug 12-14Indonesian Classic @Sedana GCC
9Aug 26-28JGC ClassicJakarta GC (Rawamangun)
10Sep 23-25Indonesian Classic @tba
11Oct 21-23Indonesian Classic @tba
12Nov 4-6JGC ClassicJakarta GC (Rawamangun)
13Nov 18-20Indonesian Classic @tba
14Dec 10-13IGT FinalJakarta GC (Rawamangun)

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