Venetian Macau Open Review

27 Oct

I want to thank everyone at the Venetian Macau Open, my friends at The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel and at the Asian Tour, for such wonderful hospitality last week.

The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel is a destination like no other that we visit all year and as such it is a very special experience for all of us players. While we were there it was announced that the Venetian Macao has extended its title sponsorship of this tournament for a further two years until 2016 and also committed to an increase in the prize money. This successful association with Macau’s premier golf championship is sure to help further boost the game in this region and also provide the opportunity for Macau sports fans and the local community to watch world-class golf on their doorstep. That’s one of the great things about sporting events such as this; the television coverage is beamed to more than 180 nations around the world, but the tournament also engages with the local population and creates interest, inspiration and excitement.

My game wasn’t quite there last week, but I must congratulate India’s Anirban Lahiri on a fantastic win. We played together in last year’s Chiangmai Classic and I was impressed with this young man’s game, so for me personally it was no surprise to see his name on the top of the leaderboard on Sunday evening and is a testament to the high level of quality on the Asian Tour.

Before we move on I also want to congratulate 15-year old Luca Filippi, a member of the Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation, who in winning the Royal Cape Open last week became one of the youngest ever champions in an Amateur Club Open in the Western Province back home in South Africa. Luca is just one of many talented young players at the Foundation, all of them doing themselves – and us – proud.

We left Macau on Monday morning and headed for Malaysia’s stunning Langkawi archipelago where we have the official opening of our new course, The Els Club Teluk Datai (pictured above and below), recently voted the region’s ‘Best Golf Course’ at the Asia Pacific Property Awards – a great honour for us.

Els Club Teluk Datai Gallery14

We’re cutting the ribbon on Tuesday and our partners in this project, Destinations Resorts and Hotels, have invited a number of dignitaries, VIP guests and local and international media to share the day with us. It’s certainly going to be a proud day for me and for everyone on the Ernie Els Design team. The setting for this, our third Els Club, nestled between ancient rainforest and the banks of the Andaman Sea, is unique and the golf course looks breathtaking. The feedback we’ve had from visitors and golfers has been overwhelmingly positive, which is gratifying and not altogether surprising – seriously, this place is just so beautiful!

Any new golf course opening is obviously a thrill for all of us and we’re sure that local and international golfers are going to be equally thrilled by The Els Club Teluk Datai for many years to come. Be assured that Troon Golf, who are managing the course, will guarantee exceptional playing surfaces and first-class standards of service on and off the golf course. It’s what they do best.

Okay, that’s just about it for now. Once we’re finished here at Langkawi we’ll be heading straight to Shanghai for back-to-back tournaments, starting with the BMW Masters. As it happens it was one of their sponsored events – the BMW Asian Open in 2005 – that gave me the biggest winning margin of my career, 13 shots, so I obviously have fantastic memories of that week and the way that BMW runs their events. The truth is, all BMW tournaments are organised in such an impressive fashion and they really have become among the premium events around the world, not only from a player’s point of view, but from a spectator’s standpoint too. BMW does things a little differently; they’ve got a formula and it works extremely well, so it’s exciting to be playing here this week.

Follow me on Twitter @TheBig_Easy.

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