LONDON, April 24, 2012 (AFP) - The tournament was first held on a trial basis in October last year when it was called the Lake Malaran Shanghai Masters with Rory McIlroy grabbing the biggest first prize in golf amounting to £1.24million ($2million).
This time, it will be held from October 25-28 with 78 players competing for a total prize money of £4.3million ($6.9million) and counting toward the European PGA Tour.
"I am already looking forward to teeing off," said McIlroy, who beat American Anthony Kim in a play-off last season.
"Thanks to the involvement of BMW (it was previously known as the Shanghai Masters) the tournament will now be one of the very best events in the world.
"That obviously makes it all the more exciting to defend my title there."
The tournament will come the week before the WGC-HSBC Champions, which this year switched from Sheshan near Shanghai to Mission Hills in Shenzhen.
SINGAPORE, April 26, 2012 (AFP) - Golf's OneAsia Thursday said its relations with key partner China were "as strong as ever" despite being left out of a $7 million new European Tour event in Shanghai.
The tour's boss said he hoped OneAsia might one day be involved in the BMW Masters, which last year grabbed attention when, as an unsanctioned test event, it handed Rory McIlroy the sport's biggest first prize of $2 million.
This week, the European Tour said it was adding the BMW Masters to its 2012 schedule, in partnership with the China Golf Association (CGA). Neither the Asian Tour or OneAsia, the region's two rival circuits, are involved.
OneAsia is organising five events in China this year -- about a third of its schedule -- with the CGA, a founding member of the regional circuit that sprang up in 2009.
But OneAsia commissioner and chairman Sang Y. Chun denied ties with the CGA had suffered over the BMW Masters, one of the most lucrative events worldwide, which will be held in Shanghai from October 25-28.
"The relationship with the CGA is as strong as ever. As a founding member of OneAsia, the CGA remains very supportive of OneAsia and the overall development of golf in the region," Sang said in a statement sent to AFP.
"While OneAsia and the CGA continue to work together to develop more playing opportunities in Asia, there are other factors that will sometimes dictate outcomes like that of the BMW Masters."
The Asian Tour, which is co-sanctioning five tournaments in the region with the European Tour this season, is yet to comment.
Last year, its executive chairman Kyi Hla Han hit out at the rise of unsanctioned new events in China, including the Masters, which competed with established tournaments for media attention and players.
Tenniel Chu, scion of the Mission Hills golf resorts empire who became OneAsia's secretary-general earlier this month, has also voiced concern over spiralling purses in China.
"China has deep pockets but the last thing we want to do is to raise financial expectations to levels which are non-proportional to tradition and established events," he told AFP last year.
Chu was speaking during a logjam of events last November, when players visiting China walked off with an incredible $19.5 million in prize money, along with millions of dollars in appearance fees.
The Masters, at Shanghai's Lake Malaren Golf Club, will unusually consist of just 78 players, mostly from taken golf's top 100 rankings and headlined by world number one McIlroy, the defending champion.
"I am already looking forward to teeing off at the new tournament," McIlroy said on the European Tour website.
OneAsia's Sang wished the new tournament success and said the tour would keep working with the CGA.
"Hopefully, the event will enjoy great success and perhaps in the future include an official relationship with OneAsia that will provide playing opportunities for players throughout the region," he said.
"In the meantime, OneAsia will continue working closely with the CGA to create additional high quality tournaments in China."