Sunrise Golf and Country Club will take centre stage when the 10th anniversary season of the Faldo Series Asia tees-off this week.
Less than a month after crowning the champions from the 2014-15 campaign, Sir Nick Faldo is eagerly anticipating the commencement of what promises to be a notable milestone in the history of the Series.
To be played over 36 holes, the Faldo Series Chinese Taipei Championship returns to one of the country’s best-known venues with a minimum of four places up for grabs in the 2015-16 Asia Grand Final, to be hosted by Sir Nick at Mission Hills Golf Club in China next March.
Six-time Major championship winner Sir Nick, Britain’s most successful golfer, said: “We are proud of what the Faldo Series Asia has achieved during its first nine years.
“As well as providing a springboard into the professional game for dozens of talented players, the Faldo Series Asia has also succeeded in helping to grow the game at the grass-roots level via various activities that have been undertaken at our events.
“Chinese Taipei has been one of the linchpins of the Faldo Series Asia from the outset. I still have very vivid memories of Tseng Ya-ni winning the Girls’ Division at the first Faldo Series International Trophy in Hong Kong in 2005.”
Since then, Chinese Taipei players have won the Girls’ Division at the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final on no fewer than five occasions – Hsieh Yu-ling twice and Lin Tzu-chi, Liu Yi-chen and Cheng Ssu-chia once apiece.
The country’s male players, however, have not fared so well. “Perhaps this will be the year that we see Chinese Taipei provide the Boys’ winner for the first time,” said Sir Nick.
Among the favourites at Sunrise Golf and Country Club will be Tsai Kai-jen, who was edged out on a countback by China’s Cao Sen in the Boys’ Under-16 segment at Mission Hills last month.
Supported by The R&A and Mission Hills and endorsed by the Asian Tour and the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation, the 2015-16 Faldo Series Asia campaign stretches over 11 months and will include a minimum of 21 events in 17 countries including, for the first time, Australia.
Winners of age-group categories at each of the national championships will earn themselves places in the 10th Faldo Series Asia Grand Final, to be hosted by Faldo at Mission Hills China in March, 2016.
Recognised as the only global amateur series for boys and girls, the Faldo Series was established in 1996, expanding to Asia in 2006.
Today, 40 Faldo Series tournaments take place in 30-plus countries worldwide, touching more than 7,000 golfers each year. Past winners include Tseng Ya-ni and Rory McIlroy, who took his tally of professional Major titles to four with his wins at last year’s Open Championship and US PGA Championship.
Faldo Series http://nickfaldo.com/about-faldo-series
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