Singapore - The Asian Tour will welcome its newest Tour partner after an agreement with the Pan Pacific Hotels Group was sealed for its Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts brand to become the Official Hotel of the Asian Tour.

Pan Pacific Hotels Group owns and/or manages over 30 hotels, resorts and serviced suites with over 10,000 rooms in Asia and North America including those under development under the two Pan Pacific® and PARKROYAL® brands.

This partnership, which takes place with immediate effect, will see staff and officials from the Asian Tour as well as region’s top golfers hosted at Pan Pacific and PARKROYAL hotels and resorts across Asia.

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LONDON (Reuters) – The World Cup is to become a biennial event and after a break this year the team competition will return in 2011 with a record purse of $7.5 million.

The World Cup, which has been held annually since 1953 apart from two occasions in the 1980s, will next year boast one of the richest prize funds in golf when it is held at the Mission Hills Resort on Hainan Island in southern China from Nov. 24-27.

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MIAMI (Reuters) – Media reports that Tiger Woods is working with his swing coach Hank Haney have leading golfers talking of a possible return to action for the world number one.

The websites of the Golf Channel and Golf Digest have both reported that Woods was seen working with Haney on a driving range in Florida over the weekend, which has led to speculation that his return could be on the horizon.

“It’s certainly going to be interesting to see not just how he plays but just how he handles the whole situation,” Britain’s Rory McIlroy said on Tuesday at the Doral course in Miami, where the WGC-CA Championship will take place this week.

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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian golf chiefs are threatening to withdraw their endorsement of the U.S. PGA’s first event in Southeast Asia over a clash of dates with an existing Asian Tour event in the country.

The $6 million Asia Pacific Classic, co-sanctioned by the U.S. PGA and Asian Tour, and the Iskandar Johor Open are both scheduled to take place in Malaysia from Oct. 28-31. “In my view, the timing is wrong. There cannot be two big golf tournaments going on in the country at the same time,” Malaysian Golf Association (MGA) president Robin Loh told Tuesday’s Star newspaper.

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LONDON (Reuters) – Spain is hosting more European Tour events this year than any other country and wants to protect that powerhouse status by winning the bid to stage the 2018 Ryder Cup, a leading official told Reuters.

Seven events are due to be held in Spain in 2010 and national golf federation (RFEG) president Gonzaga Escauriaza said in an interview his organisation owed it to all their tournament promoters to land the Ryder Cup vote.

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DUBLIN (Reuters) – Tiger Woods has turned down a $75 million sponsorship offer from Paddy Power, the Irish bookmaker said on Friday, adding it would make an improved offer to the golfer.

The 14-times major champion winner was dumped by sports drink brand Gatorade last week, the third major corporate sponsor to abandon the American since details of his adulterous affairs surfaced late last year. [ID:nN26101638]

The Dublin-based company said its initial offer to Woods, who was estimated to have earned $100 million annually in endorsement deals before taking an indefinite break from golf in December, covered a five-year period.

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BEIJING (Reuters) – The Asian Tour is still keen to work with Chinese golf despite being dumped in favour of the new OneAsia Tour by the Chinese Golf Association (CGA) last year, according to tour chief Kyi Hla Han.

The CGA became a founder member of the controversial OneAsia before last season, breaking a long association with the Asian Tour, which fiercely opposes the new Asia-Pacific series. “We will continue to engage the CGA in dialogue. It cannot be denied China golf has benefited from the Asian Tour over the past few years,” Han told Friday’s China Daily.

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BEIJING (Reuters) – Only one of the some 20 golf courses in Beijing has been developed legally, a member of the law committee in China’s parliament said.

Amid concerns about land grabs of prime farming land, China’s government put a moratorium on the development of new golf courses in 2004 and reinforced the ban last year.

Development has continued, however, and the China Golf Association (CGA) puts the number of courses on the mainland at around 500, mainly clustered around the major cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. “There are many golf courses in Beijing, but only the one close to the Ming Tombs has been legally approved,” Sun Anmin, deputy director of the National People’s Congress (NPC) law committee, told Monday’s Beijing Youth Daily.

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KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – CIMB Group have signed on as Title Sponsor for the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic, Malaysia, the first ever PGA TOUR sanctioned event in Southeast Asia. This premier golf tournament (which is also sanctioned by the Asian Tour) will be held from the 28 to 31 October 2010 at The MINES Resort & Golf Club.

The tournament will see a top class international field of 40 players competing for a US$6 million prize purse, with US$1 million going to the winner. The tournament will feature the top 25 available players from the PGA TOUR’s final FedEx Cup standings and the top 10 available players from the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit. Five sponsor exemptions will make up the rest of the field, with at least one place reserved for a Malaysian professional. There will be no halfway cut for the event and as such all players will play all four days of golf.

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MUMBAI – Hero Honda signed up three of India’s most upcoming golfers – Shiv Kapur, Gaganjeet Bhullar and Anirban Lahiri – here today.

“Signing on the three promising Indian golfers is yet another example of our commitment to promote multi-discipline sports in India,” managing director and chief executive officer of the two-wheeler giant Pawan Munjal said here today.
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