DID YOU KNOW – HONG KONG OPEN
• Defending champion, Grégory Bourdy 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. Should the Frenchman retain his crown, he will equal the current record of most consecutive winning years on The European Tour with four, dating back to the 2007 season, alongside Alvaro Quiros.
• The Hong Kong Open will be the 52nd 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 51 editions of the Hong Kong Open have produced 42 different champions from 16 different countries.
• History was created in the 2003 Hong Kong 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 last Hong Kong Open 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.
