DID YOU KNOW? – UBS HONG KONG OPEN
• Defending champion, Ian Poulter will attempt to become only the second player in the history of the event to make a successful defence of the title, following Hsieh Yung-yo in 1963-64.
• Rory McIlroy will be hoping to continue his wonderful recent form in the tournament. In his past three appearances in the event he has finished second in both editions played during the 2009 season and was sixth in 2010. His last 12 rounds have yielded a scoring average of 65.83 and is a total of 50 under par OVER THE Hong Kong layout. The Northern Irishman has broken par in his last 11 consecutive rounds in the tournament.
• The 2011 UBS Hong Kong Open will be the 53rd staging of the event. The tournament was first played in 1959 and won by Lu Liang-huan and is the longest running sporting event in Hong Kong.
• The event has a wonderfully rich history of former winners, including nine Major Champions, who have won 25 Major Championships between them. They are: Peter Thomson (1960, 65, 67), Kel Nagle (1961), Orville Moody (1971), Greg Norman (1979, 83), Ian Woosnam (1987), Bernhard Langer (1991), Tom Watson (1992), José Maria Olazábal (2002) and Padraig Harrington (2004).
• The previous 52 editions of the Hong Kong Open have produced 43 different champions from 16 different countries.
• History was created in the 2003 Hong Kong Open when Shih-kai Lo became the youngest player to compete in a European Tour event, aged just 13 and 280 days, beating the then record set by Sergio Garcia of 15 and 45 days in the 1995 Turespaña Open Mediterrania. Land of Valencia.
• History was also created in the 2009 Hong Kong Open (played in November 2008), when Jason Hak became the .youngest player to make a cut in a European Tour event, aged 14 and 304 days. He beat the previous record of Garcia in the aforementioned tournament.
