DID YOU KNOW? – UBS HONG KONG OPEN
• Defending champion, Rory McIlroy 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.
• The World Number One will be hoping to continue his wonderful recent form in the tournament. In his past four appearances at Fanling, he has finished second in both 2008 and 2009 seasons, was sixth in 2010 and first in 2011.His last 16 rounds have yielded a scoring average of 66 and is a total of 62 under par. The Northern Irishman has broken or matched par in his last 16 consecutive rounds in the tournament. Of these 16, 14 have been below the par of 70.
• The 2012 UBS Hong Kong Open will be the 54th 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 ten Major Champions, who have won 27 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), Padraig Harrington (2004) and Rory McIlroy (2011).
• The previous 53 editions of the Hong Kong Open have produced 44 different champions from 17 different countries.
• History was created in the 2003 Hong Kong Open when Shih-kai Lo became the then youngest player to compete in a European Tour event, aged just 13 years and 280 days, beating the then record set by Sergio Garcia of 15 years and 45 days in the 1995 Turespaña Open Mediterrania. Land of Valencia.
• History was also created in the 2009 Hong Kong Open (played in 2008), when Jason Hak became the .youngest player to make a cut in a European Tour event, aged 14 years and 304 days. He beat the previous record of Garcia in the aforementioned tournament in 1995, aged 15 years and 46 days.
• Since the UBS Hong Kong Open became part of The European Tour in the 2002 season, Miguel Angel Jiménez is the only player to have won the event twice, in the 2005 and 2008 seasons. Of his 18 European Tour titles, five have been on Asian soil. Along with Ernie Els, they jointly hold the record for most European Tour wins on Asian soil.
