Asian Amateur to be seen by Global Audience
The continued growth of the Asian Amateur Championship received another significant boost today when it was confirmed that more than 150 countries will receive television coverage of the second edition of the landmark amateur tournament organised by the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) and supported by the Masters Tournament and The R&A.
Taking place from 7-10 October, a 120-player field will compete in the 72-hole stroke play event on the West Course at Kasumigaseki Country Club, located about one hour northwest of Tokyo near historic Kawagoe City in the Saitama Prefecture.
Coverage of the first and second rounds will include 30-minute highlight programs each day. The third and fourth rounds will then be aired live by most of the event’s broadcasters from 2:30 – 4:30 p.m. local time in Tokyo (UTC/GMT +9 hours) on Saturday, October 9 and Sunday, October 10, respectively. In addition, a 30-minute highlight show of the entire championship will be telecast following the completion of the final round.
Said Kwangsoo Hur, President of the APGC, the event’s governing body: “The goal of the Asian Amateur Championship is to create role models for the next generation of young golfers in Asia Pacific to follow. With this significant television coverage, which will highlight the region’s top amateur players, we feel we have made another important step in reaching our objective.”
Tokyo Broadcasting System will produce the world feed that will be distributed in high-definition to ESPN Star (Asia), ONE HD (Australia), TSN (Canada), ESPN Latin America, Fox Sports (Middle East), Sky Sports (New Zealand) and ESPN2 (United States). Bill Macatee, who is part of the Masters Tournament commentator team, and former European Tour professional Jay Townsend will act as the English-speaking announcers.
In Japan, Wataru Ogasawara and Sadao Iwata will provide Japanese commentary on BS-TBS, which will air championship coverage of the third round Saturday, October 9 beginning at 3 p.m. and final-round action Sunday, October 10 beginning at 6 p.m. In addition, TBS will air championship highlights late night on Sunday.
Uniquely, all live video coverage will also be streamed on the championship Web site, www.AsianAmateurChampionship.com. Highlight programming of the championship will also be available on the event’s site as video on-demand.
Information on broadcast times for all Asian Amateur Championship programming can be found here.
Confirmation of the television broadcast reach of the Asian Amateur Championship comes after the announcement earlier in the year that Samsung and Japan Airlines joined the 2010 event as ‘Proud Partners’. The support of Samsung and JAL was added to that of IBM, KFC, Rolex and Zurich, all of which backed the inaugural championship in 2009.
With an invitation to play in the 2011 Masters Tournament awaiting the winner, and a spot for both the winner and the runner(s)-up in next year’s International Final Qualifying for The Open Championship at stake, the second championship will again welcome the best amateur golfers from the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation’s 34 members nations and territories.
