New highs for golf in Asia expected at HSBC Champions

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Asia's first World Golf Championships event will set new landmarks for tournament golf in the world's most populous continent. The World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions at Shanghai's Sheshan International Golf Club is projected to have the strongest field of world-class golfers ever seen in Asia, according to the experts who compile the ratings system for golf globally.

"Although the field is yet to be finalised our estimation is that the strength of field is such that this year's winner will receive 68 World Ranking points which is 30 percent more than in any previous year's winner. It is certainly the strongest field ever seen in Asia," said Ian Barker, the Administrator of the Official World Golf Ranking.

The Official World Golf Ranking points for each tournament, except for majors and certain other events which are given separate ratings to reflect their special status, are determined by a calculation based upon which of the world's top 200 players at the time are playing in the event. Barker confirmed that the 68 points projected for the HSBC Champions would make it the second-highest ranked event played outside the United States this year, behind only the British Open Championship.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai event is also thought to be one of the largest, if not the largest, televised golf tournaments in the history of Asian golf. Although it's impossible to get precise comparable figures for other events, Richard Bunn, the Head of Operations for European Tour Productions, said the TV platform will likely set new records.

"The hours of coverage and the global distribution that goes with WGC status means it will definitely be one of Asia's biggest televised golf event ever," said Bunn.

"We're projecting 1,000 hours of coverage worldwide reaching approximately 500 million homes globally. It's going to around 190 territories, it'll be live with repeat coverage on Golf Channel in the US, Canada and Australasia, Sky Sport in the UK, Supersport in South Africa, NHK Jupiter in Japan, SBS in South Korea among others. There's never been anything on this scale in Asia before."

The final places in the field will be taken by the winners of this week's Volvo World Match Play Championship in Spain and the European and Asian Tour co-sanctioned Barclays Singapore Open.

Already, with 23 countries represented in the field, the HSBC Champions officially has the most international field of any of the year's World Golf Championships. The world's top two players, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, both World Golf Championships winners this year, are competing together in Asia for the very first time. The other 2009 World Golf Championships winner, Geoff Ogilvy, is also in the field, along with Asia's first major champion Y.E. Yang, 2009 Open Champion Stewart Cink and the 13 leading players on the Race to Dubai Rankings.

As a result, Giles Morgan, HSBC Group's Head of Sponsorship, is convinced that the 2009 event will produce a victor worthy of joining a list of past champions that includes Y.E. Yang, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia.

"The objective for the first year of the WGC-HSBC Champions has been to produce a field worthy of the title. This we have accomplished with four of the world's top five and seven of the world's top 10 players," Morgan said.

"After the Open Championship we've got the strongest field seen outside the U.S. this year and the strongest field in the history of golf in Asia. We're making history in the world's most populous region year in and year out and as Tim Finchem said we're changing the map of the golfing world."