October 26: As well as uniting the entire golfing world at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai from November 5-8, the WGC-HSBC Champions will continue to provide a crucial link in the partnership between The European Tour and the Asian Tour.

The organisations have established a formidable alliance over the past decade since the first co-sanctioned tournament in Malaysia in February 1999, an association which made further golfing history last month when the Omega European Masters in Switzerland was the first co-sanctioned tournament between the two Tours to take place on European soil.

Now, alongside the other members of the International Federation of PGA Tours, The European Tour and the Asian Tour will stand side by side once again to help present the WGC-HSBC Champions, a tournament that has been an integral part of both Tour schedules since the inaugural HSBC Champions at Sheshan in November 2005.

“We’ve always enjoyed a close relationship with the European Tour. This historic collaboration at the WGC-HSBC Champions will once again serve to enhance the growth and development of golf in the region,” said Kyi Hla Han, Executive Chairman of the Asian Tour.

“Our co-sanction programme with the European Tour has over the years allowed our players to sparkle on the international front and such collaboration will again provide further opportunities to enhance the careers of our members,” added Han.

“Golf at the highest level is now a truly global game and we have embraced that concept through our association with the Asian Tour,” said George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour. “The alliance is born out of a ten year working relationship between both Tours during which we have reached an understanding on many issues.

“Our link with Asia, and China in particular, has been further strengthened by working with other bodies who have done so much to promote the game in the region, such as the China Golf Association, and we are excited that so many long-term partners have come together for the WGC-HSBC Champions.

“As the title suggests, the WGC-HSBC Champions is a tournament which develops champions and I think no-one epitomises that better than Korea’s Y E Yang, who made his international breakthrough in November 2006 when he held off, amongst others, Tiger Woods to win the HSBC Champions at Sheshan.

“That enabled him to play around the world, gain access to the PGA Tour in America where he won on their regular tour in March this year before, of course, he went on to hold off Tiger once again to claim the US PGA Championship in August.”

The WGC - HSBC Champions is the fourth and final World Golf Championship of the 2009 season and the only one played outside the United States of America.

The other three were; the WGC – Accenture Match Play in Arizona in February, won by Geoff Ogilvy; the WGC – CA Championship in Florida in March, won by Phil Mickelson; and the WGC – Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio in August, won by Tiger Woods.

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