MILLION DOLLAR INCREASE FOR

BARCLAYS SINGAPORE OPEN


NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE ASIAN TOUR
This year’s Barclays Singapore Open will see a US$1 million increase in prize money and feature marquee players Phil Mickelson from the United States, Australian Adam Scott, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington and Yang Yong-eun from Korea.
To be played for the sixth successive season at Sentosa Golf Club from November 11 to 14 the total purse will be a staggering US$6 million.
A host of other star players will be announced over the next few months for a tournament that will also see some exciting new changes to its format.
For the second year in a row it will be joint-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and The European Tour and for the first time a field of 204 players will compete on both The Serapong and The Tanjong Courses.
Players will play on both courses for the first two days and after the halfway cut is made they will compete on The Serapong course at the weekend.
“This will be the best field we’ve yet had at the Barclays Singapore Open,” said Robert Morrice, Chairman and CEO Asia Pacific, Barclays PLC.
“We are excited about growing the tournament with this increased field of players from around the world. Golf is a cornerstone of our brand strategy, with the Barclays Singapore Open following on from The Barclays in the US and the Scottish Open.”
In an exciting development last year Barclays announced they would continue their sponsorship of what is Asia ’s richest national Open until at least 2012. They have been title sponsor since 2006.
The top 75 players from the Asian Tour and top 75 from The European Tour will make up the bulk of the field. In a move that will truly open up the tournament to the whole Asia Pacific region 32 positions have been allocated to members of the Mercedes-Benz Tour (7), the PGA Tour of Australasia (5), the China Golf Association Tour (5), the Korean Golf Tour (5) and the Professional Golf Tour of India (5).
Ten places will be for sponsor invites while four amateurs from the Singapore Golf Association and three professionals from the Singapore Professional Golfers’ Association will play.
Nearly 40,000 fans came to watch last year when England ’s Ian Poulter tasted victory and with the world’s best players returning in November that figured is expected to be surpassed.
Crowd favourite Mickelson has competed in the last three Barclays Singapore Opens with his best finish coming in 2008 when he finished ninth.
The American will arrive in Singapore as the reigning US Masters Champion - which he won in April for the third time. He has claimed four Majors in total and 38 US PGA Tour events.