Westwood, Clarke will tea off in Macau Open

MACAU: European Player of the Year Lee Westwood, winner of an amazing seven titles worldwide last year, will line up with fellow Ryder Cup player Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland to battle Asia's top professionals in the Macau Open next month, the organizer said Tuesday.

England's Westwood, the world number five, and two-time winner in Europe last year, Clarke, add star appeal to the US$200,000 tournament, the fourth leg on the Asian PGA Tour.

Former world number one Nick Faldo of England and Fiji's Vijay Singh thrilled the galleries at the inaugural Macau Open at the Macau Golf and Country Club last year but were eventually upstaged by winner Satoshi Oide of Japan.

The second Macau Open from April 15-18 will be played a week after the U.S. Masters in Augusta and the 25-year-old Westwood, tipped for superstardom after his thrilling seven-title haul last year, hopes to arrive out East with the famous winner's Green Jacket around his shoulders.

"I am delighted to have been invited to play in the Macau Open which made such a successful debut last year with Faldo and Singh battling for the title," said Westwood, who was second in last month's Dubai Desert Classic on the PGA European Tour.

"The week before coming to Macau, I will be playing in the Masters and I hope to tee up in Asia having won my first major - that would be amazing."

Westwood's star was certainly in the ascendancy last year with four victories in Europe, back-to-back wins in Japan and one triumph on the PGA Tour in the United States.

But Westwood was pipped for second place in the European rankings by Clarke.

The burly Ulsterman, winner of the Benson & Hedges International Open earlier in the season, finished the year with first place in the Volvo Masters to finish runner-up in the Order of Merit to Scotland's Colin Montgomerie.

While Westwood and Clarke will be strong contenders for the Macau Open title, the Asian challenge will be extremely strong.

Asian PGA Tour regular Gerry Norquist won the Benson & Hedges Malaysian Open in February, the first joint sanctioned event between the Asian PGA European Tours, and with a host of Asians in the leading places the region's professionals proved they are a match of allcomers.

Korea's Kang Wook-soon, whose consecutive wins in the Hong Kong Open and Omega PGA Championship clinched him the 1998 Order of Merit title, four-time Asian PGA Tour winner Boonchu Ruangkit of Thailand and Taiwan's Lu Wen-teh, winner of last year's Ericsson Classic on home soil, will be prominent amongst the Asian challengers.

Chinese number one Zhang Lian-wei, who has a top-10 finish in Europe to his credit, will be the nearest thing to a home hope for the title.

Event organizers, the Macau Government Tourist Office, Tourismo Dicersoes de Macau and the Asian PGA Tour are thrilled at the exciting line-up which has been assembled for the Macau Open at the Macau Golf and Country Club.

"With European stars Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke coming head to head with the leading Asian professionals the Macau Open has an East meets West feel about it," said Rodolfo Faustino, director, Macau Government Tourist Office.