Volvo China Open plays new venue
BY Bruce Young | Asian Tour | 2011 Volvo China Open | Preview | 19 Apr 2011
The European Tour moves north to Chengdu in China this week where, in partnership with the One Asia Tour, it will play the Volvo China Open at the Luxehills International Country club.
Chengdu is in the Sichuan Province in the south west of China, the greater Chengdu area containing a massive population of over 10 million.
The tournament is being played at this venue for the first occasion although it has staged professional tournaments previously – the latest coming early last year when Liang Wenchong won a playoff over Kim Hyung-tae to capture the Luxehills Chengdu Open.
The layout was designed by American company JMP Golf Design and was opened in 2007. JMP have been responsible for several golf course projects in China during the boom development time over the past 15 years.
The tournament carries prize-money of RMB20,000,000 or A$2.9 million with the winning purse of around A$500,000 and, for those not otherwise eligible, access to the European Tour for nearly three years.
Y.E. Yang is the leading world ranked player in the field and the defending champion. Yang has played well in recent weeks including three top tens in recent PGA Tour events. One of those was when runner-up at the Honda Classic but his 20th place finish at Augusta National at his last start was also impressive.
Sergio Garcia appears to be clawing his way back to the form we all know he is capable of. He has made his last nine cuts in world golf which compared to his form in the previous twelve months is a huge leap. This could potentially be the week that sees Garcia back in the winner’s circle. Winning in China is not new to Garcia having won the HSBC Champions event in 2009.
Stephen Gallagher appears on the verge of another European Tour win. He looked to be playing very well last week in Malaysia and apart from one missed cut in Spain he has generally played well this season.
Padraig Harrington has put together one or two very good finishes of late but has also been a little inconsistent. He is clearly capable of winning this at his best and he has won in this part of the world previously. His 10th place finish at the WGC event at Doral perhaps suggested more than any other performance this year that he is up to winning this event.
Liang Wenchong always plays well at home and he gets another great chance to win his own National Open on a golf course which he obviously enjoys. He has hardly been at his best of late but buoyed by a parochial local crowd he might just lift and contend.
The Australasian contingent is strong both numerically and in terms of chances. As a One Asia event, many are getting starts here they would not necessarily get otherwise and are headed by the former winner Scott Strange, recent Indonesian PGA winner, Andre Stolz and 2010 One Asia winners, Kim Felton and Mike Hendry.
The tournament provides a great opportunity for an Australasian to leapfrog their way onto the European Tour and twenty five or so are hoping to take advantage.
Michael Campbell’s progress of late is being watched with interest and he gets another chance this week to build on his recent improvement.
