PGA Tour China

PGA Tour China is a China-based men's professional golf tour as part of the PGA Tour's global expansion. The tour started in 2014.

The United States-based PGA Tour started a new PGA Tour China in 2014, joining the PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour Latinoamérica as third-level tours.[1] Similar to the Canadian and Latin American tours, the PGA Tour China offers a path to the Web.com Tour for top finishers and offer Official World Golf Ranking points to the top six finishers. Similar to the Canadian and Latin American tours, the top five finishers on the Order of Merit receive promotion to the Web.com Tour, with the money leader fully exempt, and others can advance to the Web.com Tour Qualifying School depending on position. The top 50 players on at the end of the season retain PGA Tour China privileges.

On January 29, 2014, PGA Tour China announced qualifying procedures and a 12-event season to begin in April. Two 72-hole qualifying tournaments will be played in March. Each event has 132 players and will award exactly 20 full-time Tour cards and conditional cards to the next 20 plus ties. In the event of a tie, a playoff will determine the 20th and final qualifying spot. For its inaugural season, PGA Tour China gave exemptions to the top 70 according to the China Golf Association rankings. Each regular season event will consist of either 144 or 156 players. After the 40 qualifiers and 70 from the rankings, the balance of the fields will be filled through sponsor exemptions, Monday qualifying, and high-ranking players from the Web.com Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamerica, and PGA Tour Canada.[2]

Zhang Lian-Wei, China's most successful professional golfer, hit the very first tee shot in PGA Tour China history.[3]

Midway during the 2015 season, the series was renamed Ping An Bank China Tour - PGA Tour China Series after Ping An Bank became the tour's umbrella sponsor.

Omega China Tour

The previous China-based tour, the Omega China Tour, ran from 2005 to 2009. It was created to encourage the development players who intended to move up to the Asian Tour or other major international tours, and also to help accelerate the development of golf in the People's Republic of China, following the sports reintroduction to the country in the 1980s, having been absent during the early communist era.

Launched by the China Golf Association in 2005, the tour began with four three-day tournaments, each with a minimum purse of US$100,000. This increased to six four-day tournaments in 2006, and then eight in 2007. It was initially planned to have ten tournaments in 2008, but this was not possible, and there were again eight events.

China has hosted some big money European Tour sanctioned tournaments, but at the launch of the Omega China Tour, the executive vice-president of the China Golf Association Jiang Xiuyun commented, "The future for golf in China – the real, long-term future – is not paying large sums to bring the world's superstars to play here. It is creating our own stars".[4] The Singapore-based World Sports Group was granted a five-year contract to organise the events. The Omega China Tour folded in 2009.

2015 season

The table below shows the 2015 schedule. "Date" is the ending date of each event. OWGR is the number of Official World Golf Ranking points awarded for that tournament. All tournaments had a purse of ¥1,200,000.

Date Tournament Winner OWGR pts
5 Apr Buick Open New Zealand Josh Geary (1) 6
17 May Eternal Courtyard Open Taiwan Chan Shih-chang (1) 6
24 May United Investment Real Estate Wuhan Open Canada Justin Shin (1) 6
31 May Lanhai Open New Zealand Josh Geary (2) 6
13 Sep Pingan Bank Open Canada Eugene Wong (1) 6
27 Sep Cadillac Championship Australia Bryden Macpherson (1) 6
4 Oct Yulongwan Yunnan Open New Zealand Josh Geary (3) 6
11 Oct Lushan Open Australia Bryden Macpherson (2) 6
18 Oct Chongqing Jiangnan NewTown KingRun Open China Zhang Xin-jun (2) 6
22 Nov Nine Dragons Open China Chao Haimeng (1) 6
29 Nov Hainan Open China Zhang Hui-lin (1) 6
6 Dec Capital Airline – HNA Real Estate Championship China He Ze-yu (1) 7

Web.com Tour qualifiers

The top five players on the Order of Merit earned Web.com Tour cards for 2015.

RankPlayerCountryEventsPrize money (CN¥)
1 Bryden Macpherson  Australia 8 769,960
2 Josh Geary  New Zealand 9 747,230
3 Zhang Xin-jun  China 12 545,046
4 Dou Ze-cheng  China 12 483,813
5 Eugene Wong  Canada 11 454,768

2014 season

The table below shows the 2014 schedule. "Date" is the ending date of each event. OWGR is the number of Official World Golf Ranking points awarded for that tournament. All tournaments had a purse of US$200,000.

Date Tournament Winner OWGR pts
20 Apr Mission Hills Haikou Open South Korea Wang Jeung-hun (1) 6
4 May Buick Open United States Sam Chien (1) 6
18 May United Investment Real Estate Wuhan Open Australia Brett Drewitt (1) 6
8 Jun Lanhai Open Australia David McKenzie (1) 6
15 Jun Earls Beijing Open China Zhang Xin-jun (1) 6
10 Aug Yulongwan Yunnan Open Thailand Gunn Charoenkul (1) 6
7 Sep Chateau Junding Penglai Open South Korea Todd Baek (1) 6
14 Sep Cadillac Championship Australia David McKenzie (2) 6
28 Sep Jianye Tianzhu Henan Open China Li Hao-tong (1) 6
16 Nov Nine Dragons Open China Jin Cheng (am, 1) 6
23 Nov Hainan Open China Li Hao-tong (2) 6
30 Nov CTS Tycoon Championship China Li Hao-tong (3) 6

Web.com Tour qualifiers

The top five players on the Order of Merit earned Web.com Tour cards for 2015.

RankPlayerCountryEventsPrize money (CN¥)
1 Li Hao-tong  China 12 967,788
2 Zhang Xin-jun  China 8 650,600
3 Brett Drewitt  Australia 12 585,196
4 Sam Chien  United States 12 573,951
5 Todd Baek  South Korea 11 535,920

Source[5]

Order of Merit winners

YearWinnerEarnings (¥)
2015 Australia Bryden Macpherson 769,960
2014 China Li Hao-tong 967,788
2009 Australia Kurt Barnes 264,750
2008 China Liao Guiming 375,125
2007 China Li Chao 652,125
2006 China Zhang Lian-wei 540,000
2005 China Li Chao

References

External links

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