ONEASIA - Asia Pacific's professional tournament destination for elite golfers

Hong Kong, 17 February 2011: Englishman Nick Redfern has taken home the US$2,500 winner’s cheque for the Volvo China Open International Qualifying by virtue of his opening round 67.

The Hong Kong-based pro will return to the Luxehills International Country Club to make a play for the RMB20,000,000 prize purse on OneAsia, after having missed the cut at the same venue on the Tour's season-opener last year.

Shenzhen-based American C.J. Gatto and Taiwanese amateur Hung Chien-yao finished in joint second place with Taiwan's Tsai Chi-huang taking the fourth and final qualifying spot following a play-off win over Korea’s Kim Hyung-woo on the 17th tee.

Play was disrupted by a thick fog which blanketed the golf course at Discovery Bay Golf club, preventing the second and final round of the Volvo China Open International Qualifying from being played.

Tournament officials made the tough decision to cancel the round at 11:30am, as the fog that blanketed the course at sunrise had not lifted significantly to allow completion of the second round or even to reduce the event to 27 holes.

“This is the first time in six years of qualifying that we’ve lost a day to the weather,” said Alistair Polson, operations director of the Volvo China Open. “Cancelling the round was the last thing we wanted to, do but to have started and not completed 18 or even nine holes would have been much worse for the players.”

The event was thus decided over 18 holes with the fourth and final qualifying spot decided by a play-off between Kim and OneAsia 2010 regular Tsai.

The pair returned to the short par-three 17th, as this part of the golf course was least affected by the fog. Both players found the green with their tee shots but Kim’s downhill birdie putt slid 15 feet past the pin from where he needed two further putts to get down.

Tsai calmly two-putted for par and sealed the final qualifying spot, which will now see him competing at Luxehills in Chengdu from 21 to 24 April.

Tsai played in a total of four OneAsia tournaments last year winning US$18,870 for the season, while Gatto took home US$17,326 from nine events.

The 17th Volvo China Open will be staged under the auspices of the China Golf Association and co-sanctioned by OneAsia and the European Tour.

The Volvo China Open is just one of 13 already confirmed tournaments on the OneAsia schedule.

The Asia Pacific-based elite tournament destination aims to stage a total of 15 to 17 tournaments across the region for its leading players in its 2011 season.

All events will be showcased on OneAsia's television platform with live coverage for four hours a day across all four tournament days, and broadcast to over 400 million homes in more than 40 countries.

Full coverage of OneAsia is available internationally on ESPN Star Sports, Jupiter Golf Network, SBS Golf Channel, Fox International, Network Ten, Sky Sports NZ, ESPN3 and America One in the USA, and ViaSat and Bloomberg Television among others in Europe.

For more information please visit http://www.volvochinaopen.com or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Final Result (top 20)

Notes to Editors:

VolvoVolvo is golf’s most prolific sponsor; the 2011 Volvo China Open will be the 123rd event staged under the title sponsorship of Volvo. Volvo’s global golf portfolio is planned and managed by Volvo Event Management – Golf, which is owned 50% by Volvo Cars, 50% by Volvo Group. The Volvo company was inaugurated in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1927 and in 1999, Volvo Cars was sold to the Ford Motor Company, whilst Volvo Group remained independent. Today, Volvo Car Corporation, which is still headquartered in Gothenburg, is owned by Geely Automotive; Volvo Cars sells almost 350,000 cars per year, including its latest models, the award-winning Volvo S60 and Volvo V60. Volvo Group comprises six individual business areas; Volvo Aero, Volvo Buses, Volvo Construction Equipment, Volvo Financial Services, Volvo Penta and Volvo Trucks, which is the second largest manufacturer of heavy trucks in the world. Global sponsorships such as the Volvo China Open, the Volvo World Match Play Championship, the Volvo Golf Champions and the Volvo Ocean Race are shared between Volvo Cars and Volvo Group.

The Luxehills Golf Course – A Venue for World-Class Golf Tournaments
The Luxehills International Country Club is the golf club nearest to the city center of Chengdu. This 7335 yards, 18 holes and par 72 golf course was designed by Mark Hollinger, a renowned golf course designer of JMP Golf Design Group from California, USA. It is also part of Luxehills International Community, the most prominent real estate project in the South-West Region developed by Wide Horizon Real Estate Co. Ltd..The golf club is composed of a fully functional clubhouse in typical North American style and an 18-hole Championship golf course, which is the only golf course with the experience of consecutively hosting professional international tournaments in western China. Luxehills Golf Club has been awarded “China Top 10 Golf Clubs” in 2010.

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 destination to the PGA Tour and the European Tour within Asia, thus retaining the best golfing talent in the region without compromising their development.