Chengdu, 13 April 2011 - Eight former winners, led by defending champion YE Yang and four ‘Major’ winners, headed by Irish star Pádraig Harrington are the driving forces behind the 2011 Volvo China Open. They will be challenged by Chinese number-one Liang Wenchong, 2010 Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie and Spanish star Sergio García at the 17th staging of the national open golf championship, which gets underway at Luxehills International Country Club, Chengdu fropm 21 - 24 April.
With a record prize fund of RMB20million (approx. US$3million) of which RMB3.3million (Approx. US$500,000) goes to the winner, strength-in-depth will be the name-of-the game at the Volvo China Open to be staged for the first time ever in China's Sichuan Province. The winner will also be guaranteed a place in the RMB32million (Approx US$5million) Volvo World Match Play Championship in Spain in May.
Defending champion Yang, who will tee off on the back of a fine top-20 finish in the recent US Masters, said, " It is always important that a player defends any title he wins, out of respect for the championship and its sponsors, so I am pleased to be returning to China where I have already won twice.”
“I know the Volvo China Open title has never been successfully defended, but there is a first time for everything.”
Liang, OneAsia's 2011 Order of Merit champion, will be making his seventh successive bid to become the first ‘home’ player to win the national open golf championship of China. He is the only participant in 156-man field to have won over the 7,335, Par-72 course.
His win at last year's Luxehills Chengdu Open on OneAsia, also played at the luxurious Luxehills International, will give him a distinct advantage.
Liang said, “It is important that I have a competitive outing under my belt ahead of the Volvo China Open, my ‘home’ open championship, which I have been especially excited about ever since Luxehills was announced as the host venue.”
It is just under a year since Liang won the last of his 17 career victories to date at Luxehills, beating Korean Kim Hyung-tae on the first hole of a dramatic sudden death play-off before heading to the Volvo China Open in Suzhou where he finished in 17th place.
“It is always difficult coming off the back of a win, especially one as tense as my victory at Luxehills last year,” confessed the 32-year-old.
“I feel fresh, relaxed and on top of my game, but if I am to win against a world class field, I will have to play my very best.”
“The support I will receive from my ‘home’ crowd will hopefully inspire me to what would be my most important victory so far, because every golfer – quite naturally – wants to win his national open championship. Winning would be really something very special, and the place in the Volvo World Match Play Championship is an added incentive to play my best golf.”
Montgomerie, fresh from his new role as a TV commentator at the Masters for Sky Sports, is preparing for his third successive appearance at the Volvo China Open. He is aiming to get his playing career back on track following total immersion in his European skipper’s role.
“The Volvo China Open has become a fixture on my schedule over recent years and having won both the Hong Kong Open and the Macau Open, I would love to make it a hat-trick,” he said.
“It’s a tough field, Sergio and Pádraig bring great added value for the sponsors and organisers, whilst Liang Wenchong, Zhang Lianwei and a host of other ambitious Chinese professionals should show us just how far Chinese golf has come over the 17 years of their national open golf championship.
"I really enjoy being in China where golf is definitely going places and in the company of Volvo, which has been such a powerful force in golf for the past 23 years and counting.”
The RMB20million (Approx. US$3million) Volvo China Open is co-sanctioned by OneAsia and the European Tour.
Two other OneAsia winners from last season, Kiwi Michael Hendry and Kim Dae-hyun of Korea, also feature in a strong line-up along with world number 83 Tetsuji Hiratsuka of Japan.
The globetrotting Hiratsuka, a five-time champion in Japan who won three events on the Asian Tour last season, recently finished ninth in the Trophee Hassan II in Morocco.
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, namely on ESPN Star Sports, Jupiter Golf Network, SBS Golf Channel, Fox International, Network Ten and Sky Sports NZ, among others.
For more information please visit www.volvochinaopen.com or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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Notes to Editors:
Volvo
Volvo 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.
