It is only a matter of time before a future Tiger Woods comes from China, according to South Africa’s golfing great Gary Player.
Speaking on the eve of the 2016 Mission Hills World Celebrity Pro-Am from the Chinese tropical island of Hainan the 80-year-old nine-time major tournament winner said: “Golf in Asia is growing quicker than anywhere else in the world and I was very proud to see a Chinese lady (Feng Shanshan) win a bronze medal at the Olympics. We are going to see a Tiger Woods come from China in a matter of time which will be very exciting.”
Player was joined by John Daly, Mark O’Meara and Rich Beem – all Major winners – plus an equally impressive foursome of LPGA stars Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis, Suzann Pettersen and Anna Nordqvist at the fairways of the signature Blackstone Course at Mission Hills Haikou for the fourth edition of the Mission Hills World Celebrity Pro-Am. Local favorite Li Haotong, winner of the European Tour’s Volvo China Open earlier this year, will make up the field of nine elite golfers who will be competing over two rounds of individual stable ford for a prize purse of 1 million US$ – with 250,000 dollars going to the winner.
Hollywood stars Michael Douglas and Jeremy Renner were two of the celebrities in Haikou for the week of golf and glamour.
This story first appeared in the blog, The Sport Intern. The editor is Karl-Heinz Huba of Lorsch, Germany. He can be reached at ISMG@aol.com. The article is reprinted here with permission of Huba.