Indonesia to tee up Mercedes-Benz Masters

JAKARTA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia will host the opening event of the newly launched Mercedes-Benz Tour next month, which will see the Southeast Asian top golfers on the fairways.

The 50,000 U.S. dollars Mercedes-Benz Masters Indonesia will be played at Emeralda Golf and Country Club in Bogor, just south of Jakarta, from May 14 to 17.

The tourney will see Filipino Angelo Que and Malaysia's Danny Chia compete, local major newspaper The Jakarta Post reported Monday on its website.

The pair finished first and second in the Philippine Open at the weekend.

Indonesia's top players such as Denny Supriadi, Maan Nasim, Ilyasak and Suprapto will also take part.

These players were regulars in last year's inaugural tour, then called the ASEAN Golf Tour. Five events were played, with the Philippines' Mars Pucay winning two, while Chia and Que both claiming one event each.

This year Mercedes-Benz became title sponsor of the tour, which now includes 10 events.

"Our first event last year was also played in Indonesia and was a great success. We are expecting another perfect start to the season when the Mercedes-Benz Masters Indonesia tees off at the club," the tour chairman, A.C. Wong, was quoted as saying.

The Mercedes-Benz Masters Indonesia is sanctioned by the Indonesian Professional Golfers Association (PGPI) and the bulk of the field will be made up of 50 players from Indonesia, and 20 each from Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.