European Tour back in full swing at Fanling
BY Bruce Young | Asian Tour | 2007 Hong Kong Open | Preview | 13 Nov 2007
The first full field event of the European Tour, the UBS Hong Kong Open, admittedly co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour, takes place this week at the Hong Kong Golf Club’s composite layout at Fanling near the border with China. Hong Kong is of course now part of China following the handover in 1997, in fact the venue for this week’s event was known as the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club when Hong Kong was under British control.
Last week’s HSBC Championship was the first official event of the 2008 season but that tournament used strict qualifying criteria and only a limited field participated.
This week the defending champion is Jose Manuel Lara, who edged out the brilliant Philippine golfer Juvic Pagunsan, while in 2005 it was Colin Montgomerie who hung on to defeat American Edward Loar. Lara has not had a good season in 2007 since his victory twelve months ago but he has played a little better in recent weeks and could do well on a golf course where he clearly has a comfort zone.
This week tournament organisers have managed to attract a reasonably strong field, including three winners on the USPGA Tour in 2007, headed by the world’s 12th ranked player, K.J. Choi who finished 59th last week in Shanghai in what was a very ordinary week for him. He has though completed a brilliant season on the USPGA Tour and is a class act.
Mike Weir arrives in Hong Kong with his game in great shape after a win in Scottsdale but more importantly with the changes he has made to his golf swing now taking full effect. He looked very, very good in that win.
Daniel Chopra won three weeks ago at the Ginn sur Mer Classic in Florida, his first USPGA Tour victory and success in Asia would be nothing new to him having won six events there earlier in his career. Chopra is on a journey that will take him to Melbourne next week and to New Zealand continuing what has been a tradition in playing internationally on a regular basis.
Retief Goosen is perhaps the second highest ranked player but his form in recent weeks has not been to the level we have typically seen from the South African. Goosen played beautifully earlier in the year but would need quite a turnaround to win this week.
Stuart Appleby has had an average year in the US this season by his standards, his worst since 2001. He has not played competitively in nearly two months and so it is hard to imagine he will be able to challenge many others who are more tournament ready than him.
Soren Kjeldsen has a good record in Hong Kong having finished 6th last year and 19th in 2005. The Dane finished runner up to Justin Rose at the Volvo Masters two weeks ago and is in good enough form to improve, even further, his good record in this event.
Like Kjeldsen, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell had a brilliant week at Valderrama, finishing 4th despite a double bogey at the last hole and has generally played well in recent months. He finished runner up in the China Open earlier this year and while this is not exactly China in the strictest sense, it is not far off and highlights his capacity to play well on rather foreign soil.
There are many other chances, none more exciting than the 18-year-old Rory McIlroy. Now a full member of the European Tour, the brilliant Northern Irishman finished 3rd at the Dunhill then 4th in Madrid confirming what most people already knew of his potential.
Outside of Appleby, the Australasians Scott Strange, Marcus Fraser, Brad Kennedy, Mark Brown, Tony Carolan, Unho Park, Gary Simpson Marcus Both, Mitchell Brown, Adam Le Vesconte, Richard Lee, Adam Groom and Mahal Pearce all get their chance to improve their Asian or European Tour positions.
