This will be the sixth year for APGS which has grown into one of the world’s top business summits for the golf industry.
The dates for the 2012 Summit will be 11-13 December and the venue will be the six-star Empire Hotel and Golf Resort – a lavish and luxurious facility. The venue has always been a top-ranked golf resort in the region and in 2012 it topped the Asian Golf Monthly Awards by sweeping the Best Golf Resort inAsia category.
One of the highpoints of APGS 2012 will be the appearance of the Colin Montgomerie, OBE, as a celebrity keynote speaker. Arguably, one of the greatest golfers to have come out ofEurope, Montgomerie is best remembered for his 8 European Tour Order of Merit titles and spectacular captaincy of the victorious European Ryder Cup team in 2010.
“We are delighted to have Colin as a special celebrity keynote speaker and we are confident that he will be a very stimulating speaker besides adding a tremendous touch of class to theSummit,” exclaimedMike Sebastian, chief executive officer of the Asia Pacific Golf Group, the owner and producer of the highly acclaimed APGS.
APGS is an annual high-level annual summit dedicated to the business and operational aspects of the golf industry in the Asia Pacific region. Past notable speakers who have addressed theSummitinclude Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Peter Thomson, Greg Norman, Annika Sorenstam and Tony Jacklin.
“Monty”, as he is popularly known, has had one of the finest careers in European Tour history, having won a record eight Order of Merit titles, including a streak of seven consecutively from 1993 to 1999, and 31 European tour victories, placing him fourth on the all-time list. His career high world ranking is second.
APGS 2012 takes on a whole new dimension this year as it moves fromThailandto the Sultanate of Brunei.
“APGS will be staged in conjunction with the 2012 Royal Trophy, the inter-continental challenge tournament that brings about a clash between Team Asia and Team Europe,” revealed Sebastian. “By staging these two world class events together, we are actually creating an unmatched golf spectacle of global proportions – the coming together of the best in a golf business event and a golf tournament.”
This sentiment was echoed by Desmond Acheson, general manager of the Empire Hotel and Golf Resort, “We are extremely delighted to be able to play host to these two stellar events and we strongly believe that by staging both the events together, we will be creating a not-to-be-missed world class golf classic by the global golf trade and golf fans.”
“APGS will kick-off the week-long programme and it will be followed by the sixth staging of the Royal Trophy from 14-16 December,” according to Sebastian.
The team captains for the Asian and European contingents have been announced and Team Europe will be led by Spanish veteran Jose Maria Olazabal and the legendary Japanese ace Masashi “Jumbo” Ozaki will lead Team Asia.
According to the organisers, this year’s APGS is expected to feature about 35 world-class speakers drawn from all over the world. “We will continue with our concerted push for change and the focus will be placed squarely on finding effective ways to grow the game,” Sebastian emphasised. He added, “Given the trend towards golf course renovations inSoutheast Asia, we see this as a tremendous opportunity to stress on the need to correct everything that was done wrongly the first time around and we believe that this will serve as an excellent catalyst to set change in motion.”
Full details on programme content, speakers and event registration will be available in mid-February.