The European Tour held the 2013 Hong Kong Open this past weekend at the Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling. In previous years, the field at the Hong Kong Open has been filled with superstars including YE Yang, Matt Kuchar, Paul Lawrie, Jose Maria Olazabal, and past winners Ian Poulter, Rory McIlroy and Miguel Angel Jimenez. However, the event was held the same week as Tiger Woods’ Northwestern Mutual World Challenge, which hosted 18 players, all of whom are in the Top 30 in the Official Golf World Ranking.
Previous years, the event put on events around the city including a visit to the Hong Kong Peak and hitting golf balls off the mountain or having players compete in Central, Hong Kong in an Urban Golf Challenge. However, with such a conflict, the field at the Hong Kong Open was not as star studded as previous years and the buzz leading up to the event was not as strong. However, last year’s champion Miguel Angel Jimenez would compete and attempt to defend his title. And defend he did! He would win the Hong Kong Open for the fourth time after winning a three-way playoff against Thailand’s Prom Meesawat and Stuart Manley of Wales on the first hole.
Jimenez, 49 years and 337 days old, has now become the oldest player to win on the European Tour. He won on the course that he loves so much in 2004, 2007 and 2012 and has matched the record held of most wins at the Hong Kong Open by Taiwan’s Hsieh Yong Yo, who won the tournament in 1963, ’64, ’75 and ’78. We’ve played at the Hong Kong Golf Club before and it is an amazing course, take a look at the photo below! We hope to see Jimenez compete for a 3-peat next year!
Source: Hong Kong Open Championship, European Tour
