78 top-ranked golfers vie for BMW Masters crown
Print Edition
THE fourth edition of the BMW Masters symbolically kicked off at Lake Malaren Golf Club Shanghai yesterday, with world-class players set to fight it out in this exclusive field from tomorrow until Sunday.
As representative players of the 2015 BMW Masters, Swede Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose of England, Wu Ashun and Li Haotong tried to chip the opening ball through an ancient Chinese coin at the launch ceremony, honoring a traditional Chinese way of seeking blessings.
As the third BMW-sponsored event on the European Tour calendar this year following the BMW PGA Championship and BMW International Open held in May and June, the BMW Masters is this season’s penultimate tournament in the Final Series toward the prestigious DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
It is also one of the most lucrative competitions, with a US$7 million prize purse up for grabs, and an all-new BMW 7 series car model for the masterstroke on the 17th hole.
“We try to align Innovation powered by JOY — our brand spirit with the BMW Masters; delivering the JOY of golf and BMW at the same time,” said Ulrich Sanne, senior vice president and CFO of BMW China.
What makes the competition an ideal stage for BMW to present its dedication to golf sponsorship, and claim of its own dynamics and precision in engineering is the assembly of 78 top-ranking golf players from over 10 countries, led by Stenson and Rose, the highest-ranking players at the 2015 BMW Masters.
Stenson, currently the world’s top Swedish player and winner of 17 professional tournaments around the world, finished runner-up at the FedExCup in 2015. Rose, the 8-time English champion on the European Tour and PGA Tour, recently captured his first European Tour victory of the season in the UBS Hong Kong Open.
The star-studded field also features four major champions, seven WGC winners, as well as 25 of the winners from the 2015 European Tour. Up to 57 out of the 78 players once won the European Tour. The list includes winners of majors — Louis Oosthuizen and John Daly, as well as Ryder Cup stars Sergio Garcia of Spain, England’s Ian Poulter, Wales’ Jamie Donaldson and Frenchman Victor Dubuisson. Marcel Siem, who won last year’s BMW Masters chipping in for birdie on the first extra hole in a thrilling finale against Ross Fisher and Alex Levy, will be defending his title this week.
Looking forward to make the most of their home advantage, 13 strong Chinese contenders are ready to take their best opportunity to score points for next year’s qualification to Rio Olympics, where golf will be making a return to the Olympics after more than a century on the sidelines.
Among all the top golf competitions, the BMW Masters features the biggest number of players from the China Golf Association, which has 14 spots reserved for its recommended players, including Moon Kyong-jun from South Korea this year. As the Chinese team leaders, Wu Ashun and Li Haotong will both compete at the BMW Masters for the fourth consecutive year after making huge breakthrough in their own golf career and China’s golf sport earlier this year.
Wu, ambassador for BMW’s golf promotion in China, became the first Chinese player to win a European Tour title this year when he triumphed at Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club in April.
Li became the first Chinese golfer to earn his card for the Web.com Tour and finished in a tie for seventh place at the WGC-HSBC Champions last week as the best performance ever for any Chinese players at this event.
“The BMW Masters is a precious opportunity for Chinese golf players to practice at the highest level. It is heartening to see them make progress every year,” said Wang Liwei, deputy director general, Multi-Ball Games Administrative Center of the General Administration of Sport of China, and vice president of the China Golf Association.
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