SINGH, CAMPBELL, DALY, FALDO AND ROCCA HEAD FOR BMW ASIAN OPEN

Five of the world’s best golfers will head full speed to Asia’s richest ever golf tournament, the US$1.5 million BMW Asian Open, at the Westin Resort Ta Shee this year.

Fiji’s Vijay Singh, New Zealand’s Michael Campbell, American John Daly, England’s Nick Faldo and Italy’s Costantino Rocca have all confirmed they will compete in what is a brand new event.

The five star players will help start the ignition on the tournament, which will be played from November 22 to 25 and will be joint-sanctioned by the Asian PGA-run Davidoff Tour and the European Tour.

Much of the attention will focus on two-time Major winner Singh who at the beginning of this year won back-to-back titles in Asia to maintain a superb record in the region.

In February, Singh won the Carlsberg Malaysian Open and then the Caltex Singapore Masters the week after. Both of these events were joint-sanctioned by the Davidoff Tour and European Tour and the victories brought Singh’s tally of titles on the former tour to four and on the latter to 10.

The flying Fijian has also won nine times on the US PGA Tour although he has yet to taste victory there this season despite being in fine form. He’s finished second twice, third three times and has had 11 top-10 finishes.

When Singh plays in the BMW Asian Open at the end of the year it will be the first time he will have been to Taiwan since he won the Taiwan Open in a play-off last season. Boasting victories all over the world, Singh’s highlights to date are the US Masters in 2000 and the 1998 US PGA Championship.

Campbell will also be in the spotlight during the week as it was at the Westin Resort Ta Shee in 1999 that he won the Johnnie Walker Classic. That victory revived his career and was followed soon after by three other wins on the European Tour.

The talented Maori also finished first on the PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit last year and added the icing to the cake in 2000 by winning the New Zealand Open for the first time.

Daly, who like Singh has won two Majors, has also been enjoying a good season. The American has not won since his victory in the British Open in 1995 but this year he has been playing some of the best golf of his career.

Daly, who has been ranked as the longest hitter on the US PGA Tour on eight occasions, finished joint third in the Scottish Open and equal fifth in the Phoenix Open. He was also tied for sixth in the Macau Open and could well be amongst the front runners in the BMW Asian Open.

Faldo’s game has also been enjoying a revival and he will be exciting to watch at the Westin Resort Ta Shee. The six-time Major winner nearly won the PGA Championship on the European Tour this year and eventually finished third.

The Englishman has won the US Masters and British Open three times each and is hungry to start winning titles again.

Rocca will also be keen to impress in Taiwan. The five-time winner on the European Tour and runner-up in the 1995 British Open, where he lost in a play-off against Daly, last won in 1999, in the West of Ireland Classic.

“BMW is delighted to bring and promote the BMW Asian Open to the region at the stunning Ta Shee golf course,” said Ingo Wirth, Tournament Director of the BMW Asian Open and the BMW International Open in Germany. “The event is unique in many ways. It signals the first time it has been joint-sanctioned by the Asian PGA-run Davidoff Tour and European Tour and to date, it is Asia’s richest golf tournament. In addition, we will be welcoming some of the biggest names in golf to the tournament and, like all golfing fans around Asia, we at BMW are extremely excited at the prospect of watching them compete.”

On the European Tour the BMW International Open in Munich has been a leading event for the past 12 years and the creation of the BMW Asian Open will expand on their global support of professional golf.

The BMW Asian Open will see 60 players competing from the European Tour and another 60 players from the Davidoff Tour.

“Not only will the BMW Asian Open be the richest event to be played in Asia but it will also feature one of the strongest ever fields that has competed in the region,” said Ramlan Harun, Executive Director, Asian PGA.

“In Singh, Daly, Campbell, Faldo and Rocca we have five wonderful star players but the tournament field will also boast strength in depth with the top players from the Davidoff Tour and European Tour competing,” added Harun.

The BMW Asian Open will be the penultimate leg of this year’s Davidoff Tour but will be the first event of the European Tour’s 2001/2002 season.

The championship course at the Westin Resort Ta Shee is rated as one of the finest layouts in the region and in addition to hosting the Johnnie Walker Classic it also staged the Ta Shee Open on the Davidoff Tour in 1997.