By IANS
Hong Kong : Shiv Kapur will be hoping for another good result as he opens his challenge at the UBS Hong Kong Open Thursday. The 25-year-old Delhi golfer will be trying to build on his fine top-10 showing at the tough Sentosa Golf Club in Barclay’s Singapore Open two Sundays ago.
Kapur has been paired alongside former Masters champion, Mike Weir of Canada and former Asia No. 1 Simon Dyson.
“I played well at Singapore and am looking comfortable,” said Kapur. “Singapore was a tough event with demanding conditions and I was happy with the way I planned my round.”
There will be a lot of Indian interest out there at the Fanling, where other Indians will include Gaurav Ghei, winner of the Pine Valley Beijing Open, Rahil Gangjee, the 2004 Volkswagen masters winner, S.S.P. Chowrasia and Amandeep Johl trying to make a comeback from injury.
The Indian interest also extends to Daniel Chopra, who makes his first appearance in Asia since winning the PGA Tour event last month. Chopra will tee off with Trevor Immelman of South Africa and Chapchai Nirat of Thailand.
Chowrasia plays with Martin Romminger of Switzerland and Swede Mathias Gronberg. Ghei has been paired with South Korea’s Charlie Wi and Ryder Cup star Ireland’s Paul McGinley, while Gangjee plays with Lu wei-Chih of Taiwan and Ricardo Gonzalez of Argentina. Johl goes out with Henrik Nytsrom of Sweden and Wong Woon-Man of Hong Kong.
The $2.25 million Hong Kong Open has a star-studded field led by South Africa’s Retief Goosen, a two-time US Open winner, who will be eager to make amends after narrowly missing the cut last year. Others include defending champion Jose Manuel Lara of Spain, South Korea’s Choi Kyung-ju, who has won twice on PGA Tour this year and English legend six-time Major champion Nick Faldo, who now divides his time between playing on Seniors Tour, commentary and designing golf courses.
China’s top golfer Liang Wen-chong, who leads the Asian Tour’s UBS Order of Merit race, will head the Asian Tour charge alongside Chapchai Nirat and Filipino young gun Juvic Pagunsan who finished runner-up last year.
Out to regain his position after missing the cut by a mere one stroke in 2006, Goosen is geared to stay on course for a strong outing this year.
“I am looking to win, that’s the main thing. This year has been a little bit up and down. I won early in the year and did well at Augusta but from there on it has been a bit of a struggle. The swing changes I have been working on have made things a little difficult but then the last few events I have felt I was starting to hit the ball pretty nicely so it is now just the case of trying to make a few putts and getting on a roll,” said Goosen, with 14 wins on the European Tour.
Competing on one of Asia’s oldest golf courses, Goosen will be adopting a cautious approach as he tackles the esteemed Hong Kong Golf Club which holds one of the region’s finest finishing holes on the par four 18th hole.
“Golf is growing fast over here. We have a lot of good players coming up from the Asian side now the Asian Tour is stronger too. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world now, you have to play well to win. This is another one of those events where you are going to have to play very well to win,” Goosen said.
After his last competitive outing in early October, Faldo, the three-time British Open winner, hopes to dig deep in search of a solid result in Hong Kong.
“I am looking forward to this week. I tried a couple of things last week with my sports psychologist and I managed to dig out one of my old thoughts and I’m interested to see if I can still put that into play. This is always a good spot and it has good atmosphere and the field this week is great,” said Faldo, who is confident of an enjoyable week at the Hong Kong Golf Club.
The field also has Australia’s Stuart Appleby and Thailand’s Thaworn Wiratchant and Thongchai Jaidee.