Singapore (September 30) Asia is all set to honour another group of exceptional athletes – men who have excelled in the game of golf and who have led exemplary lives.
At the 2011 Asia Pacific Golf Summit, the organisers of the event, the Asia Pacific Golf Group will bestow the highest honours of achievement on five world class sportsmen – four from the world of golf and one from the world of tennis. The awards will be presented during the Summit which will be staged at the beach resort city of Pattaya in Thailand from October 31 to November 2.
The honourees this year are:
• Thongchai Jaidee
• Gary Player
• Tony Jacklin
• Kyi Hla Han
• Jimmy Connors
“All five share one thing in common – a stellar record of achievements that have already enshrined them in the annals of sports history as being amongst the greatest performers in both golf and tennis,” saiod Mike Sebastian, chief executive officer of the Asia Pacific Golf Group.
Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee, a former para-trooper from the Thai army has long been regarded as one of the best players from Asia.
The 41-year-old has enjoyed an extremely successful career on his home continent after turning professional at the relatively late age of 30.
After a stint in the Thai army, Jaidee has notched an impressive 13 victories in Asia. He is a three-time Asian Tour Order of Merit winner. He has yet to win on the European Tour but would be delighted if he could score a big win on the European Tour. Among some of his big victories are the co-sanctioned European and Asian Tour tournaments, such as the Ballantine’s Championship and the Indonesia Open in 2009. He also won the Malaysian Open twice in 2004 and 2005.
For his consistent performance, Jaidee will be the first Asian professional golfer to receive the 2011 Asia Pacific Life-Time Achievement Award.
The Asian Tour’s executive chairman, Kyi Hla Han has been one of the leaders in the development of professional golf in Asia since the early 1990s. Han has distinguished himself as a player before ascending to management. The 49-year-old Myanmar native, won the Order of Merit in Asia in 1999, a season that was highlighted by his victory in the Volvo China Open. He won 10 professional tournaments overall.
In 1994, Han, still active as a player, was among the founding members of the Asian PGA Tour. In 2004, the Asian Tour was formed and named Han chairman of the board of directors. He was named executive chairman by the board in 2006.
Han, who once tutored a young Vijay Singh, is confident of the future of the Asian Tour. For his determination, stamina and commitment to grow the Asian Tour, Han will receive the 2011 Asia Pacific Life-Time Achievement Award.
Tony Jacklin, the poster boy of golf in the late Sixties and early Seventies will be recognised for his outstanding achievements as a professional golfer. At two different times in his life, Jacklin emerged as the man who restored pride to golfers on the eastern side of the Atlantic.
In 1969, he became the first British golfer in 18 years to win the British Open (and, the next year, the first in 50 years to take the U.S. Open). Then, in 1985, he captained the European Ryder Cup team to its first victory over the U.S. in 28 years (and, two years later, its first win ever on U.S. soil).
Jacklin turned pro in 1961 at age 17. After his stellar playing career, Jacklin found a new role in the 1980s as captain of the European Ryder Cup team. Working with a strong nucleus of players, he instilled a belief that the Europeans could beat the mighty U.S., and, after coming close in 1983, they accomplished the trick in 1985 and 1987. For his victories at the majors and his role as “Captain Terrific” in the Ryder Cup wins, Jacklin will be honoured with the 2011 Asia Pacific Life-Time Achievement Award.
Gary Player, the super-star golfer from South Africa, celebrated the 50th anniversary of his first Masters victory in 1961 at the 2011 Masters. In 1961 Player became the first international golfer to ever don the Green Jacket. He repeated as champion in 1974 and again in 1978 becoming the oldest player (42) to ever win the Masters at the time.
“I have promoted golf as a truly international sport for my entire career and winning the Masters proved that I could win in the USA which was a huge help in reaching that goal.” he said.
Paying special tribute to Player, a former competitor and close friend Jack Nicklaus said, “Gary is not only a wonderful person, but has always been a fantastic player. There is perhaps no player who has done more with his God-given ability than Gary. He might be considered slight in stature, but he has always been a fierce competitor. Gary plays every shot like it is the most important. You could argue that he might be, pound-for-pound, one of the best our game has seen. It’s either him or Ben Hogan. But if you are forced to choose between those two, that’s a pretty good compliment.”
For his long list of achievements on and off the golf course, Player is being inducted into the hallowed Asia Pacific Golf Hall of Fame.
The final award recipient at the 2011 Asia Pacific Golf Summit is not a golfer. He is a tennis player – perhaps the greatest player who ever lived. During his reign in world of professional tennis, this great man thrilled, enthralled, entertained, challenged and took on all comers. He was special. And he is still special today.
He is none other than Jimmy Connors, the great American tennis legend. Connors is the only man to have won the US Open on grass, clay and hard courts. At the world’s craziest, grittiest, toughest tennis tournament, he was the craziest, grittiest, toughest player of them all.
Twenty years ago, Connors – at age 39, less than a year removed from reconstructive wrist surgery and, most everyone thought, long since finished – Connors went on his wildest US Open run. It began with a two-sets-to-love deficit in the first round (his victim: Patrick McEnroe) and peaked on his 39th birthday in an iconic fourth-round five-set match against Aaron Krickstein. The lobs. The returned overheads. The quips. The arguments. The fist pumps. The yelling. And near bedlam when Connors came back to win after having trailed 5-2 in the fifth.
This is what made Connors unique. His extraordinary qualities as a supreme athlete and his indomitable fighting spirit needs to be honoured and recognised not only by his peers but by the global sporting world. Connors will be presented with the first-ever Asia-Pacific Excellence In Sports award.
The events that will be staged at Pattaya include:
• 2011 Golf Course Superintendents of Asia Summit
• 2011 PGA Conference of Asia
• 2011 Southeast Asia & India Golf Merchandise Exhibition
• Inaugural All Asia Inter-City Golf Challenge Tournament
• Inaugural ASEAN Golf Tourism Forum
Contact:
Alice Ho
e-mail: alice@asiapacificgolfgroup.com
Tel: 65-63232800
Web-site: www.golfconference.org
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