Asian golfers for Dunhill
Links tourney

Twelve Asian PGA players will tee up against some of the world's best golfers in the inaugural Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland from October 18 to 21 for a bumper prize purse of US $5 million.

It was announced by the European Tour that the 72-hole event will be staged at the Old Course at St Andrews, the championship course at Carnoustie and highly regarded Kingsbarns. The eligibility criteria includes the leading 12 players from the 2000 Davidoff Tour Order of Merit.

Asian PGA Executive Director Ramlan Dato' Harun said: "The Dunhill Links Championship will be another great opportunity for our members to showcase their talents on the world stage. Following the success of Thongchai Jaidee, Anthony Kang and Choi Kyung-ju in qualifying for the US Open recently, Asian players have proven that they can perform in the major events."

The top-12 finishers on the 2000 Davidoff Tour Order of Merit are as follows: Simon Dyson (England), Jyoti Randhawa (India), Yeh Wei-tze (Taiwan), Craig Kamps (South Africa), Arjun Atwal (India), Thongchai Jaidee (Thailand), Prayad Marksaeng (Thailand), Des Terblanche (South Africa), James Kingston (South Africa), Kang Wook-soon (Korea) Stephen Lindskog (Sweden) and Hendrik Buhrmann (South Africa).

In previous years, Asian players have enjoyed success at the former Alfred Dunhill Cup, a team event which was staged annually at St Andrews until last year. In 1996, India's Gaurav Ghei upset Scotland's Colin Montgomerie while two years later, China's Wu Xiang-bing stunned Spain's Jose Maria-Olazabal. In 2000, China's number one Zhang Lian-wei scalped Zimbabwe's Nick Price.

156 teams of one professional and one amateur will contest the first three rounds at the Dunhill Links Championship with one round being played at each of the three links courses in rotation. Two competitions will be played concurrently - Professional Individual and Team.

The team score will be the best nett score of the two members at each hole. After 54 holes the field will be reduced to the leading 60 professionals and ties plus the 20 leading teams, all of whom will play the final round at St. Andrews.

Prize-money will be US$5 million with US$4.8 million rewarding the leading 70 pros based on their individual scores and a further US$200,000 for the professionals on the leading 20 teams. First place in the individual competition is US$800,000.

Eligibility for the 156 professional field will be as follows:

* The top 50 from the OFFICIAL WORLD GOLF RANKING as of September 17, 2001.
* The leading 12 players from the 2000 Davidoff Tour Order of Merit, the 2000/01 Australasian PGA Tour Order of Merit, and the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, who are not otherwise qualified from the OFFICIAL WORLD GOLF RANKING.
* 20 invitations.
* Balance of the field from European Tour entries in category order.