Gary Murphy takes up a vital invitation to the Barclays Singapore Open this week in search of some of the US$6 million prize money on offer at the Sentosa Golf Club that might help him avoid a return to the European Tour qualifying school in two weeks.
The Kilkenny man joins eight other Irish players in Asia the second last event before the Dubai World Championship presented by DP World at the end of the month.
Graeme McDowell and Padraig Harrington arrive from the WGC – HSBC Championships in Shanghai – along with the winner Francesco Molinari.
Paul McGinley, Shane Lowry, Darren Clarke, Peter Lawrie and Michael Hoey arrive from the other direction having had a week off.
Damien McGrane also plays and will be keen to make up for his last round at the Andalucia Valderrama Masters where he slipped out of contention on the final three holes.
Ian Poulter will defend his title at the Barclays Singapore Open next month an event co-sanctioned by The European Tour and the Asian Tour after becoming the first Englishman to win the tournament in its 46-year history with a one-stroke victory over China’s Liang Wen-chong last year.
He joins a star-studded field that includes Phil Mickelson, Louis Oosthuizen, Y E Yang and Adam Scott, all chasing the record-high first prize of US$1 million in the joint richest event on the European Tour outside of the Major Championships and the World Golf Championships.
Australian Adam Scott is a two time winner of the Singapore Open in 2005 and 2006 and even widely regarded as “Asia’s Major”.
The event takes on a new format this year, with a field of 204 players competing on both The Serapong and The Tanjong Courses for the first two days, after which the halfway cut is made, and the final two rounds taking place on The Serapong course at the weekend.
The top 75 players from the Asian Tour and top 75 from The European Tour will make up the bulk of the field. In a move that will truly open up the tournament to the whole Asia Pacific region 32 positions have been allocated to members of the Mercedes-Benz Tour (7), the PGA Tour of Australasia (5), the Japan Golf Tour Organisation (5), the China Golf Association Tour (5), the Korean Golf Tour (5) and the Professional Golf Tour of India (5).
Ten places will be for sponsor invites while four amateurs from the Singapore Golf Association and three professionals from the Singapore Professional Golfers’ Association will play.
