Singapore (February 14): The Asia Pacific Golf Summit is breaking away from the predictable. Instead of seeking out a venue noted for its standing in golf, the organizers have decided to move into a market that is better known for its oil reserves than for the game of golf.
Why not? After all golf has a long and rich tradition in the venue selected for the 2012 Asia Pacific Golf Summit. The British played the game on this pristine and sedate enclave when they first landed on the massive island of Borneo or to be more precise, on the Sultanate of Brunei.
Never have the hallowed grounds of royalty played host to a golf conference, and like many previous first time achievements, the Summit has yet again pushed the envelope and scaled new heights.
The Royal Sultanate of Brunei will host the 2012 Asia Pacific Golf Summit and it promises to raise the bar in terms of content, production and experience.
To start with, the venue for the Summit is spell-binding. Home for the 2012 event will be the spectacular 6-star Empire Resort Hotel that sits majestically on an exclusive land reserve overlooking the mighty South China Sea.
“The very site of the facility, its beautifully manicured surrounds, the imposing architecture and the royal ambience is a sight to behold,” declared Mike Sebastian, chief executive officer of the Asia Pacific Golf Group, the owner and producer of the Summit. “It is without a doubt, the best venue so far and it will go a long way towards helping us set a new standard for the Summit,” he said.
The oil-rich state will stage the Summit on December 11-13. The Empire Hotel has always been a top-ranked golf resort in the region and in 2011, it topped the Asian Golf Monthly Awards by sweeping the Best Golf Resort in Asia category.
Long time supporter and stalwart of the Summit Brian Curley, principal of Schmidt-Curley Design said, “This is a refreshing change – a brand new location, a brand new venue and this augurs well for the future growth of golf in Asia!”
One of the highpoints of APGS 2012 will be the appearance of the Colin Montgomerie, OBE, as a celebrity keynote speaker. Arguably, one of the greatest golfers to have come out of Europe, Montgomerie is best remembered for his 8 European Tour Order of Merit titles and spectacular captaincy of the victorious European Ryder Cup team in 2010.
“We are delighted to have Colin as a special celebrity keynote speaker and we are confident that he will be a very stimulating speaker besides adding a tremendous touch of class to the Summit,” said Sebastian. Past notable speakers who have addressed the Summit include Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Peter Thomson, Greg Norman, Annika Sorenstam and Tony Jacklin.
“Monty”, as he is popularly known, has had one of the finest careers in European Tour history, having won a record eight Order of Merit titles, including a streak of seven consecutively from 1993 to 1999, and 31 European tour victories, placing him fourth on the all-time list. His career high world ranking is second.
APGS 2012 takes on a whole new dimension this year as it moves from Thailand to the Sultanate of Brunei.
“APGS will be staged in conjunction with the 2012 Royal Trophy, the inter-continental challenge tournament that brings about a clash between Team Asia and Team Europe,” revealed Sebastian. He went on to add, “By staging these two world class events together, we are actually creating an unmatched golf spectacle of global proportions – the coming together of the best in a golf business event and a golf tournament.”
Desmond Acheson, general manager of The Empire Hotel and Golf Resort said, “We are extremely delighted to be able to play host to these two stellar events and we strongly believe that by staging both the events together, we will be creating a not-to-be-missed world class golf classic by the global golf trade and golf fans.”
According to the organisers, this year’s APGS is expected to feature about 35 world-class speakers drawn from all over the world. “We will continue with our concerted push for change and the focus will be placed squarely on finding effective ways to grow the game,” Sebastian emphasised. He added, “Given the trend towards golf course renovations in Southeast Asia, we see this as a tremendous opportunity to stress on the need to correct everything that was done wrongly the first time around and we believe that this will serve as an excellent catalyst to set change in motion.”Ì¢?å¬
To view the event launch video, click on this link:Ì¢?å¬http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69t6t_Pi-uw&feature=channel_video_title
Full details on programme content, speakers and event registration will be announced in due course on the Summit’s web-site at: www.golfconference.org
Any enquiries should be directed to:Ì¢?å¬Alice Ho – alice@asiapacificgolfgroup.com
THE EVOLUTION OF A GLOBAL SHOW
The Asia Pacific Golf Summit started back in 2007 when it was decided that the sprawling region needed its own B to B golf industry conference. This spurred the Asia Pacific Golf Group (the owner and producer of the event) to take on the challenge to organise the Summit).
The first Summit was staged in Singapore and since that beginning, the Asia Pacific Golf Summit has grown from strength to strength. It has been staged every year since at the following venues:
• 2008 – Shenzhen, China
• 2009 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• 2010 – Bangkok, Thailand
• 2011 – Pattaya, Thailand
The stand-out feature of the Asia Pacific Golf Summit is that over the years, it has drawn more than 200 world class speakers and panelists to speak at its sessions. Amongst some of the stellar names who have delivered major addresses include:
• Jack Nicklaus
• Gary Player
• Greg Norman
• Robert Trent Jones Jr
• Annika Sorenstam
• Peter Thomson
• Jimmy Connors
• Tony Jacklin
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