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Aging cast lifts Asian hopes in HK

Colin Montgomerie of Scotland takes part in the UBS Hong Kong Open Championship Pro Am day at the Hong Kong Golf Club at Fanling yesterday ahead of the Hong Kong Open, which starts today. PHOTO: AFP

An aging cast of former Major winners has raised Asian hopes of breaking a 10-year win drought at this week’s US$2.5 million Hong Kong Open.

Defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez, 44, leads an experienced European contingent which boasts 14 Major titles but only one since the turn of the century.

“There are a lot of Europeans here and they’re strong but Asians surely have the game to win here,” said India’s Jeev Milkha Singh, who won last week’s Singapore Open.

“There’s a lot of talent among the Asian players. It all comes down to how he’s going to handle himself mentally in the last round,” he said.

September’s losing Ryder Cup captain Nick Faldo will be reunited with victorious 2004 skipper Bernhard Langer, also 51, who won here in 1991.

Other Major winners include Jose Maria Olazabal, Paul Lawrie and Michael Campbell, while Colin Montgomerie will hope to add to his 2005 title.

Meanwhile 1991 PGA Championship and 1995 Open winner John Daly will be happy to make the cut after years of turmoil which has seen his ranking plummet to 788.

The colonial-era Fanling course is celebrating its 50th Open in the grips of the global downturn, with Hong Kong entering recession last week and title sponsor UBS losing nearly US$50 billion in the sub-prime crisis.

However, a strong Asian contingent will be optimistic about claiming their first win here since South Korea’s Kang Wook-soon in 1998.

India’s Singh leads the charge after holding off the likes of Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington and Ernie Els to win by a shot in Singapore.

“I’m confident and I’m looking forward to this week. Obviously after a win, I’m on a high,” he said.

The victory made Singh the Asian Tour’s first single-season millionaire and all but sealed the regional merit title with earnings of US$1,404,606.

Fellow Indians S.S.P. Chowrasia and Arjun Atwal have also tasted victory this year, as have New Zealand’s Mark Brown and Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand.

China will be represented by last year’s merit champion Liang Wenchong and Zhang Lianwei.

Other contenders include Briton Oliver Wilson, who will look to shed his ‘nearly man’ tag after his eighth runner-up finish at this month’s HSBC Champions in Shanghai.

European rookie of the year Pablo Larrazabal joins Jimenez, Olazabal and 2006 winner Jose Manuel Lara in a strong Spanish grouping hoping to seal the country’s fourth victory here in five editions.

Jimenez, who won in 2004 and last year, can become only the second European to win the Hong Kong Open three times after Peter Thomson’s hat-trick in the 1960s. Taiwan’s Hsieh Yung-yo is the only player to have won it four times.

In a further sign of the event’s pedigree, Greg Norman has triumphed twice at Fanling and Tom Watson, Ian Woosnam and Harrington are also former winners.
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