There's no Tiger this time but nevertheless a strong cast of players tees off today at the BMW Asian Open in Taiwan.
Vijay Singh is aiming at a hat-trick of titles in Asia this year and Michael Campbell has set his sights on another victory in Taiwan, after his Johnny Walker win two years ago on the Westin Resort Ta Shee course.
PHOTO: COURTESY PGA
That event was the debut of the European Tour in Taiwan, but this time the tour is intended to become an annual fixture on the European PGA Tour calendar.
Promoters have put up a purse of US$1.5 million to make it the richest tournament in Asia, with US$400,000 going to the winner.
The Asian Open in Taiwan is also the penultimate stop on the 2001 Asian PGA Tour.
Of all the stars competing today, most eyes will be on Michael Campbell and Vijay Singh.
Michael Campbell has fond memories of his win against Tiger Woods two years ago, as it proved to be a springboard for a string of successful campaigns.
Singh, the winner of the 1998 US PGA Championship and the 2000 Masters Tournament, captured back-to-back titles in February on the European Tour at the Malaysian Open and the Singapore Masters.
He failed to win in Singapore, however, and is looking to correct a series of recent near-wins.
"It was a good season but it's been disappointing not to win again after doing the double in Asia."
"It would be good to make up for that disappointment by winning this week. I am playing well and I didn't come all this way to finish second.
The Fijian rates his chances after having fine-tuned his swing.
"I have had a few flaws in my golf swing. When I was getting in contention I was always hitting bad shots to the left.
"I have worked on that and got it corrected. It's taken a while but I think I have got it to the point where I have good control of my golf swing," said Singh, who has won six times in Asia.
"It's important that you know down the stretch that your golf swing is going to hold up and mine wasn't doing that.
"I was playing good enough golf to finish well but not to win. I have worked on what I need to work on and I am now really looking forward to next year and this week," Singh said.
Singh's most recent visit to Taiwan resulted in victory at the 2000 Taiwan Open.
Michael Campbell and Vijay Singh, however, are not the only foreign players in the field who have shown they can win in Taiwan.
Completing the field are 60 players drawn from each of the European and Asian tours.
Leading the Asian challenge will probably be Korean-American Charlie Wi. He won the last stop on the Asian Tour, the Volvo China Open, and is atop this year's Order of Merit standings.
Other winners in Taiwan tournaments include Kang Wook-soon of South Korea (Taiwan Open), James Kingston of South Africa (Ericsson Classic), and Boonchu Ruangkit of Thailand (Mercuries Masters).
The first group of players is scheduled to tee off at 6:40am.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier