Europe and Asia together for TCL Classic
BY Bruce Young | Asian Tour | 2007 TCL Classic | Preview | 14 Mar 2007
The TCL Classic, which marks the last leg of the current five tournament swing of events co-sanctioned between the European and Asian Tours, starts on Thursday at the Yalong Bay Golf Club in Sanya in the south of Hainan Island off the South West Coast of China.
The European Tour will return to China in a month’s time for the Volvo China Open and BMW Asian Open for the final two events of ten that will have been co-sanctioned between European and Asian Tours in the 2007 season.
The tournament is being played as a co-sanctioned event for just the third occasion with previous winners being Paul Casey in 2005 and Johan Edfors, the most recent champion, in 2006.
The Robert Trent Jones Jr designed layout at Hainan Island was opened in 2000 and features Bermuda Tifdwarf greens and a lot of water, in fact more than half the holes have a water feature or hazard of some description. The course was used for three events on the Asian Tour in 2006 namely this event, the Crowne Plaza Open and the Volkswagen Masters.
Last year in this event, Johan Edfors held out Andrew Buckle by one shot although neither is in the field this week. Both Buckle and Edfors are in Florida this week playing the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Nick Dougherty is therefore, perhaps, considered the favourite and is playing well at present. He was 4th last week in Singapore and last year finished fourth in this event.
Local hero Liang Wen Chong will capture the imagination and attention of Chinese golf this week after his playoff win in Singapore last week. He led after round one in this event last year with an opening 62 and although he faded over the closing three rounds he arrives here as a much more credentialed golfer this time.
Paul McGinley returns from a couple of weeks in the USA and where he made the cut at both the AT&T Pebble Beach and Nissan Open events. This is a significantly less demanding tournament than those in terms of field strength and he must rate some sort of chance. He played reasonably well in this event in 2006 when 16th and lost a playoff to Paul Casey in 2005.
Prayad Marksaeng has struggled in recent weeks but he played well in this event last year and is certainly one of Asia’s best players. He also finished fourth behind Retief Goosen at the Volkswagen Masters at Yalong Bay late last year. He might find that a return to a venue at which he has played well previously might be enough to get him back on track.
Another Thai player, who will be watched with interest is the youngster Chinarat Phadungsil, who won at this venue last year when the Crowne Plaza was held at Yalong Bay and finished 7th at the Volkswagen Masters later in the year.
Australian Terry Pilkadaris is another who has won at this venue, in fact twice in 2004, and he has played well in the last two weeks. He fell victim to the last nine holes last week in Singapore but still finished 8th and could be a chance to continue his great Yalong Bay record this week.
There are more than 25 Australsians in a field that will play for a total purse of US$1 million.
