June 20: UBS, one of the most significant supporters of golf in the Asia Pacific region, has announced that talismanic Chinese golfer Zhang Lian-wei has received a sponsors’ invitation for next week’s UBS Japan Golf Tour Championship, one of the most prestigious events in Japanese men’s golf.
The ¥150 million (about US$1.2 million) event, considered the ‘Players Championship’ of the game in Japan, will be played from June 28-July 1 at Shishido Hills Country Club, located about 90 minutes northeast of Tokyo.
The UBS Japan Golf Tour Championship will be something of a homecoming for the five-time Asian Tour winner, who played with distinction in Japan between 2002 and 2004. He posted 11 top-10s in that period, with a best of equal fourth.
In fact, his last tournament in Japan was at the Shishido Hills event in 2005, where he also recorded a tie for 19th in 2003. After cutting back on overseas travel in recent years to concentrate on domestic and Asian events, this trip represents a welcome return to global golf for the normally globetrotting Zhang.
Said Zhang: “I am very excited to play in Japan again, as it has been two years since I last played there. I am looking forward to competing with some old friends, having a great week and playing more events in Japan.”
The opportunity comes as apt reward for not only the 42-year-old’s outstanding career, one that has seen him forge a path for the professional game in China, but also a welcome run of strong form lately.
Finishes of tied 10th at the Pine Valley Beijing Open and fifth at the Macau Open in his last two Asian Tour events have pushed Zhang into 43rd position on the UBS Order of Merit, complementing a win at this month’s Nanjing leg of China’s domestic Tour.
Said Zhang: “I have been playing regularly on the Asian Tour and achieved good results over the years and with the China Tour I started playing more events a couple years ago. I’m happy with the results and this month I won the Omega China Tour Nanjing stop.
“I am comfortable with my game so far, but surely I am always hoping to do better. I think my passion about golf and commitment to golf has contributed greatly to my success,” he added.
Also on his enviable list of achievements are being the first player from China to win a European Tour-sanctioned event at the 2003 Singapore Masters and being the first to play in the US Masters in 2004.
Zhang joins Gaurav Ghei as the second of UBS’s sponsor invitations to be announced for the championship. The Indian is riding high after his victory at April’s Pine Valley Beijing Open victory, lying in seventh on the UBS Order of Merit at the season’s halfway mark with more than US$213,000 in earnings.
The decision by UBS, one of the world’s leading financial organisations, to invite both players comes as part of the bank’s support of golf across Asia Pacific, a portfolio that also includes the Asian Tour’s UBS Order of Merit, currently led by Zhang’s compatriot and protégé Liang Wen-chong, and the UBS Hong Kong Open.
Also entered in the field are Frankie Minoza from the Philippines and Thailand’s Prayad Marksaeng, bringing to three the number of the UBS Order of Merit’s top-10 players competing at Shishido Hills.
SK Ho, Yeh Wei-tze, Lin Keng-chi, Chawalit Plaphol, Thammanoon Srirot and Prom Meesawat are also all currently entered, completing a 10-man Asian Tour contingent at the tournament.
Along with the rest of the 132-man field, they will have extra incentive at one of Japan’s highest-profile events with the winner receiving entry into the US$8 million Bridgestone Invitational. The World Golf Championship, to be played from August 2-5 at Firestone Country Club in the United States, was won by Tiger Woods for the fifth time in 2006.
Last year, Tatsuhiko Takahashi claimed the UBS Japan Golf Tour Championship after closing with a final-round 68 to finish on seven-under-par 273. That provided a three-shot margin over Tetsuji Hiratsuka, with SK Ho and Tommy Nakajima another stroke adrift in third.
UBS entered a partnership with the event for the first time last year, seeing it join the UBS Hong Kong Open, UBS Order of Merit, BMW Asian Open, Faldo Series Asia and The UBS Golf Club television show in an unrivalled portfolio of regional golf sponsorships.
