With nothing happening on the local scene this week, and
Ryan Fox sitting out this week, most of the action is in Asia with Danny Lee,
Lydia Ko, Michael Hendry, Gareth Paddison, Josh Geary and Mathew Perry all
engaged. Slightly closer to home, the
Nexus Risk TSA Group WA Open takes place in Perth with five New Zealand
professionals playing.
Once again, there’s an opportunity to watch live PGA Tour
and LPGA tour golf from mid-afternoon through the weekend, until both
tournaments reach their respective climaxes on Sunday evening our time.
PGA Tour
The Tour is in Jeju Island, Korea this week for the CJ Cup
at Nine Bridges. This is another 78
player, no cut, event and Danny Lee is by no means the only Lee in the field,
so make sure you follow the right one!
Nine Bridges opened in 2001, and is rated the 1# course in Korea, and
41# on Golf magazine’s world ranking list.
Chi Chi Rodriguez called it the “Taj Mahal of Golf”, because
every hole looked like a picture postcard.
Should provide great viewing - coverage is on Sky Sport 54 from 3.00pm
Thursday.
LPGA Tour
This week’s tournament is the interestingly named Swinging
Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship, played at the Miramar Resort & Country
Club in Taipei. Lydia Ko won this
tournament early on in her professional career, and she plays in Round 1 with
Carlota Ciganda of Spain, and Ha Na Jang of Korea.
Coverage is on Sky’s pop-up channel 3 from 4.00pm Thursday.
Asian Tour
Gareth Paddison has a sponsor’s invite for the Macau Open,
which also features the colourful Daniel Chopra, who played in the 2015 NZ PGA
Championship, as well as Scott Hend and the exciting Thai player Jazz
Janewattananond.
Other News
The PGA Tour of Australasia resumes again with the Nexus
Risk TSA Group WA Open, being played at the prestigious Royal Perth Golf
Club. Brad Shilton, Mark Brown, Luke
Toomey, Michael Long and Ackzel Donaldson will tee it up here. Brown and Shilton bring some solid Charles
Tour form to the event, and must be some sort of a chance this week.
Michael Hendry continues on the Japan Tour in the
Bridgestone Open at Sodegaura Country Club in Chiba Prefecture. This is one of the top events on the Tour,
with prize money of nearly $NZ 2.0 million on offer.
On the China Tour, Josh Geary and Mathew Perry are both in
the Foshan Open, a $NZ 700 event co-sanctioned with the European Challenge
Tour.
As mentioned earlier, Ryan Fox is not playing in the
Andalucia Valderrama Masters in Spain this week, but keep an eye out for him
next week when he and Michael Hendry take on the WGC-HSBC Champions in
Shanghai, China.