Leading players from ASEAN will play in both US$1m tournaments
SINGAPORE, 10 June, 2010 - OneAsia - Asia Pacific's professional tournament platform pathway for elite golfers - today announced that it would award a minimum of 10 spots on its eligibility criteria to leading players from the Mercedes-Benz Tour for its upcoming US$1 million tournaments in Indonesia and Thailand.
These would be additional to the 30 places at each tournament already available to local players from each host nation through OneAsia’s existing regional exemptions category.
The move to offer positions to the Mercedes-Benz Tour comes in line with OneAsia's mission to further consolidate the region's best onto one professional pathway, providing them with maximized opportunities to further their potential on home ground.
The ASEAN PGA is the governing body of the Mercedes-Benz Tour. It was inaugurated in 2007 and is recognised by the ASEAN Secretariat. This year the Mercedes-Benz Tour will stage 10 events and saw the Mercedes-Benz Masters Thailand played last week – which was the fourth event of the season.
The Tour shares the same vision as OneAsia which is to provide greater playing opportunities to professionals in the region. The additional positions awarded will thus ensure players on the Mercedes-Benz Tour benefits through increased access to both the Indonesia Open presented by Enjoy Jakarta (1-4 July) and the Thailand Open (26-29 August), not only by playing for US$1million at both events but also earning world ranking points.
"We recognize the vital role that the ASEAN PGA plays in South East Asia with the Mercedes Benz Tour and we are delighted to invite its leading players to come play on OneAsia," said Mr Sang Y Chun, Commissioner of OneAsia.
“The winners from the Mercedes-Benz Tour will be given an opportunity to play against top players from Korea, China, Japan, and Australia. This is the premise of OneAsia- Asia’s best playing against one another for the world to see.”
"This is a great playing opportunity for our players in Southeast Asia," said Mr A.C. Wong, Executive Chairman, Mercedes-Benz Tour. "We have always felt that professional golf in Asia has needed another step for player development, and as such, we are very pleased that our members have been invited to play in the Indonesia Open presented by Enjoy Jakarta and the Thailand Open."
OneAsia moves forward with its fifth event of the season with the Indonesia Open presented by Enjoy Jakarta next month at the Damai Indah Golf - Pantai Indah Kapuk Course.
In 2010, OneAsia will stage 11 tournaments with a total of over US$12 million in prize money to be won.
ENDS
About OneAsia
OneAsia is a non-profit organisation developed to maximize elite tournament opportunities in Asia-Pacific. The Founding members of OneAsia are the China Golf Association, the Korea Golf Tour, the Korea Golf Association and the PGA of Australia. The mission of OneAsia is not just to allow the region's best players to gain access to more events, but to ultimately provide them with an alternative pathway to the PGA Tour and the European Tour, thus retaining the best golfing talent in the region without compromising their development.
About ASEAN PGA & Mercedes-Benz Golf Tour
The ASEAN PGA launched in 2007 with the objective of providing more playing opportunities for up and coming professionals from the ASEAN region. In 2008, Mercedes-Benz signed a three-year agreement to become title sponsor of the Tour. When the Tour was launched in 2007, five events were played. In 2008, a total of ten tournaments were held. Due to the economic crisis, eight events were staged in 2009. This year the circuit is back to ten tournaments. The ASEAN PGA is headquartered in Singapore and is officially sanctioned by ASEAN. Dr Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN is the Honorary Patron.
For more information, please contact:
Janice Lee Fang
PR & Media Manager - OneAsia
DID: +65 6236 0362
Mobile: +65 8268 8155
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Simon Wilson
Media Manager – World Sport Group
DID: +65 6826 2688
Mobile: +65 9127 5473
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