Indonesia to tee up Mercedes-Benz Masters

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 04/07/2008 5:31 PM  |  Sports

Indonesia will host the opening event of the newly launched Mercedes-Benz Tour next month, which will see the Southeast Asian top golfers on the fairways.

The US$50,000 Mercedes-Benz Masters Indonesia will be played at Emeralda Golf and Country Club in Bogor, West Java, from May 14 to 17, and will see Filipino Angelo Que and Malaysia's Danny Chia compete. The pair finished first and second in the Philippine Open at the weekend.

Indonesia's top players such as Denny Supriadi, Maan Nasim, Ilyasak and Suprapto will also take part.

These players were regulars in last year's inaugural tour, then called the ASEAN Golf Tour. Five events were played, with the Philippines' Mars Pucay winning two, while Chia and Que both claiming one event each.

This year Mercedes-Benz became title sponsor of the tour, which now includes 10 events.

"Our first event last year was also played in Indonesia and was a great success. We are expecting another perfect start to the season when the Mercedes-Benz Masters Indonesia tees off at the club," said the tour chairman A.C. Wong in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post.

"We set up the tour in order to create more playing opportunities for professional golfers in the ASEAN region, so it is very appropriate that the first event be played in Indonesia. There is a wealth of talented golfers here hungry for more tournaments to play in," Wong said.

The Mercedes-Benz Masters Indonesia is sanctioned by the Indonesian Professional Golfers Association (PGPI) and the bulk of the field will be made up of 50 players from Indonesia, and 20 each from Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

The Tour will visit Indonesia twice this year -- for the Mercedes-Benz Masters Indonesia, and the International Championship, from August 13 to 16. The later tournament was the opening event last season, and was won by Chia.

All the tournaments offer prize money of US$50,000, apart from the final Mercedes-Benz Tour Championship in Thailand in November, which will offer US$75,000.

Emeralda Golf & Country Club hosted the Indonesian Open in 2006, the Asian Matchplay Championship in 1996 and the 1995 Alfred Dunhill Masters.(mvm)

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