Liang Jiekun from Peach Garden Golf Club has secured a dream start in the Foshan Open. His round of 74 was enough to win the Golf Liquor 2019 Southern China Golf Club Members’ Ranking Tournament Grand Final held at Foshan Golf Club.
Liang said: “I’m very happy to qualify for the Foshan Open. Thank you to the Guandong Golf Club Managers Conference for holding the event, and thank you to the Foshan Golf Club and the sponsor Golf Liquor for their great support.”
Three spots in the hugely popular Foshan Open Pro-Am also went to runner up, Li Zhongqiu, third placed Liu Ting from Agile Golf & Country Club, and fourth placed He Lida from Lakewood Golf Club. Bottles of Golf Liquor were also awarded to the leading three gross and leading three net scores.
This year, a record 321 golfers from 23 clubs in the southern China area entered with 71 qualifying for the Grand Final at Foshan.
Mr. Feng Xiong, Director of Guangdong Golf Sports Center, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of Guangdong Golf Association, said: “The Southern China Golf Club Members’ Ranking Tournament offers a great opportunity for golf club members to meet each other and make friends. It also offers a rare opportunity for outstanding amateurs to play with the emerging pros in the Foshan Open.
“Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all the participating clubs for their great support to the Association and golf development in Guangdong Province.”
Mr. Fu Yongjie of organizer, President of Guandong Golf Club Managers Conference, said: “We’re now into our fourth year of organizing the Southern China Member’s Ranking Tournament and, looking at the list of clubs that participated, it’s great to see that virtually all of them are from the key cities of the Greater Bay Area - Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoxing.
“There’s some good relationships being established across the Bay Area between not just the golf clubs but also their many members and I’m sure that this will lead to closer cooperation in both golf and other projects for the Bay. We’re especially pleased that we have the prestigious brand Golf Liquor as our sponsor. It’s thanks to them that we’ve been able to bring together all these golf club members from around the Bay area.”
In a symbolic gesture towards the building of golfing relationships across the Bay, a separate and informal ‘9 + 2’ Challenge was held on the tiny 19th hole in front of the clubhouse at Foshan Golf Club. Two circles were marked on the green – one nine feet in diameter and the other just two feet in diameter – representing the nine Guangdong cities plus Hong Kong and Macau that together form the infrastructure of the Greater Bay Area Initiative. For Rmb100 each, golfers tried to land their tee shots inside one of the circles. Golf caps and balls were awarded to the successful attempts.
Mr. Julian Small, General Manager of the Foshan Golf Club said: “It is an aim of the Foshan Open to involve the whole golf community in the Greater Bay Area. We also want to reach out and care for the community. RMB8000 was raised today and will add up to the Caring for the Community Programme and be given to Foshan Red Cross Hospital School and Guangzhou Huiling Special Education School. The ‘9 + 2’ Challenge will remain active right through to the Foshan Open on 24-27 October.”
