The Perfect End to a Rejuvenated Championship

But today's pros are most certainly pros, and while Hong Kong is undoubtedly an event that every player looks forward to and wants to be a part of, the top guys - and not just the likes of Rose, Johnson, Patrick Reed and Graeme McDowell, but those highly talented players who occupy the higher echelons of the European Tour - are largely swayed on where they turn up to by the prize money on offer. This explains why the 2013 and 2014 editions of Hong Kong's oldest professional sporting event didn't see so many of them as we would traditionally expect. Without a title sponsor during those two years, prize money dropped to the European Tour's minimum expected purse, so for those who love the Hong Kong Open for what it is - an event that is simply bursting at the seams with heritage and historical prestige - the Hong Kong Golf Club's generous underwriting of the championship in those somewhat fallow times has to not only be admired, but respected too. There is only one other fully fledged golfing championship event in the world that has been staged at the same venue for a period of more than half a century and that is the Masters Tournament at Augusta National. The Hong Kong Open is in rarified company - and that's something golf in Hong Kong can be justifiably proud.

With the increase in prize money this time around, thanks to UBS' return as title sponsor, in addition to the support of the Hong Kong Government's Mega Events Fund - which made it possible for the aforementioned star names in addition to Victor Dubuisson and four-time champ Miguel Angel Jimenez to confirm their starting places in the field early - 2015 had a definite buzz about proceedings. And not only for players involved.