The big Shanghai sur-prize

The 2006-season opener starts in Shanghai this Thursday with the best players lining up for the $5 million HSBC Champions Golf Tournament, the biggest ever prize money on offer in Asia

SHANGHAI: American Tiger Woods and Fijian Vijay Singh, the two best players in the world of golf, line up alongside Scot Colin Montgomerie and Kiwi Michael Campbell, the leading money winners on the 2005 European Tour for the inaugural HSBC Champions Golf tournament, which starts this Thursday in Shanghai. The quartet is among an elite 75-member field laced with members of the victorious 2004 European Ryder Cup team. The 2006 season-opener will have the European Tour, the Asian Tour, the PGA of Australasia and the Sunshine Tour title winners competing against each other for the crown.

Woods, the reigning Masters and British Open champion who clinched the 2005 PGA tour money title last weekend with a career-best $ 10.6 million, is hoping to round off his season in style with his seventh victory of the year. “There is a real buzz about golf in China as it grows in popularity so I think it will be an amazing week for both the players and the fans,” said the 29-year-old, who will be playing his first official tournament in the country.

However, the world number one is unlikely to have it all his own way with the likes of Singh and Montgomerie, who are both in top form, around at the Sheshen Golf Course. The Fijian has won four titles this year but is still seeking his first on Chinese soil, while Montgomerie clinched the European Tour money title for an unprecedented eighth time last month after a six-year hiatus.

“I am now looking to get my 2006 campaign off to a great start and to consolidate my position on The Ryder Cup rankings and a win or a good finish at the HSBC Champions would certainly do that,” said the Scot.

Campbell, the reigning US Open Champion, is also expected to challenge hard. The New Zealander may have lost out to Montgomerie in the Order of Merit race but he will be eager to get back on the winning trail following his HSBC World Match Play Championship triumph at Wentworth in September.

Ireland’s Paul McGinley is another player brimming with confidence and will be looking for consecutive titles following his victory in the season-ending Volvo Masters at the Club de Golf Valderrama last month. McGinley and Montgomerie will be joined by seven of their Ryder Cup team-mates from the record-breaking 2004 European Team as Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington, David Howell, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Thomas Levet, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood have all made the long journey to Shanghai.

China’s top golfer, Zhang Lian-Wei heads the home challenge while Asian Tour number one, Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand will be looking to win for the fourth time this year.

“Playing with Tiger in the field naturally puts a lot of pressure on the Asian Tour players,” said Zhang. “But it is a good chance for us all to learn from him and the other top players.”

China Bound: Atwal, Randhawa

The Indian duo of Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa will rub shoulders with the likes of Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington in the five million dollar HSBC Champions Tournament at the Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai from November this week.

The new tournament offers the biggest prize fund ever on the Asian continent and Atwal and Randhawa would be leading Indian challenge in the meet.

Teenager Shiv Kapur missed a berth by a whisker after the Indian lost his playoff match and the title to Thai teenage sensation Chinarat Phadungsil in the Double A International Open at Rayong on Sunday. —UNI