Two European golfers currently in the top 20 of the Official World Golf Ranking – Colin Montgomerie and Henrik Stenson – headline the field for this week’s BMW Asian Open, which returns for a third consecutive year to the Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club in China.
The illustrious duo already occupy two of the ten automatic places on offer for Europe’s Ryder Cup Team bound for The K Club in September and, as the points race gathers momentum, will be keen to pocket as much of the record $1.8 million prize fund on offer to help cement their respective positions.
The prize fund is $300,000 greater than that which was on offer in both 2004, when Spain’s Miguel Angel Jiménez won, or in 2005 when South Africa’s Ernie Els won by a record 13 shots, and the winner on Sunday night will receive $300,000.
Of course, both Montgomerie and Stenson know what it takes to win in Asia, Montgomerie’s most recent victory in the Far East coming last December when he took the UBS Hong Kong Open, while Stenson won another of the co-sanctioned events with the Asian Tour in January when he claimed The Commercialbank Qatar Masters.
There were originally four top 20 players in the field but injury has robbed the tournament of the talents of Englishmen Luke Donald, the current World Number Ten and David Howell, the current leader of The European Tour Order of Merit. However it is still a stellar gathering with two other members of the winning 2004 European Ryder Cup Team – Paul Casey and Jiménez – in action, alongside eight time European Tour winner Thomas Björn and six time Major winner Nick Faldo.
Casey proved his game was on song too with a share of fourth place in last week’s Volvo China Open while Jiménez will relish a return to the venue where he triumphed two years ago knowing too that his game is in fine fettle as he proved at Augusta National two weeks ago when he finished in a share of 11th place at the Masters Tournament.
Being a co-sanctioned event with the Asian Tour, there will also be a strong home presence vying for the title and aiming to follow in the footsteps of Korea’s Charlie Wi and Mardan Mamat of Singapore, who have already won on The European Tour International Schedule this year, Wi winning the Maybank Malaysian Open in February while Mamat took his home OSIM Singapore Masters title in March
Leading the way will be the talented Thai trio of Thongchai Jaidee and Thaworn Wiratchant – both winners on The European Tour – and Prayad Marksaeng, who finished in the top ten in the Volvo China Open and, of course, India’s Jeev Milkha Singh, who triumphed at the Honghua International Golf Club.
There will also be vocal local support for Chinese golfing stalwart Zhang Lian-wei and one of the country’s up and coming stars, Li Chao, who celebrates his 26th birthday the day before the tournament starts, and who was the only Chinese golfer to make the cut in last week’s Volvo China Open at the Honghua International Golf Club in Beijing.
Marco Kaussler, from tournament sponsors BMW, said: “We are very proud to welcome once again an outstanding players’ field for the 2006 BMW Asian Open. This tournament looks set to draw large crowds to the Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club and attract new fans for golf in China.”
This week’s tournament is the first of three under the sponsorship of BMW on The 2006 European Tour International Schedule, the second being the BMW Championship – The Players’ Flagship at Wentworth Club, Surrey, England from May 25-28, with the third being the BMW International Open at Golfclub München Nord-Eichenried, Munich, Germany, from August 31 to September 3.
In addition, BMW is the Official Car to The 2006 Ryder Cup at The K Club, Straffan, Co. Kildare, Ireland in September and was the Official Car of January’s Royal Trophy in Thailand.
