Golf's greatest stage awaits the champion of this week's Asian Amateur Championship - and Hong Kong's brightest talents are right in the hunt.
The inaugural event, a four-day stroke-play tournament devised by the Augusta National Golf Club in tandem with the Royal & Ancient and the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation, tees off at Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen today with six Hong Kong hopefuls in the field.
The 117 players, drawn from 30 countries across the region, will have their sights set on a place at the 2010 Masters, the prize for the champion.
Without doubt the most important amateur golf tournament to ever take place in Asia - and a clear illustration of the growing importance golf's hierarchy places on this part of the world - the AAC is one of only five amateur events to offer the chance to compete in the Masters. The winner and runner-up are also guaranteed a place in international final qualifying for the British Open at St Andrews. The ACC tournament will be broadcast to more than 150 countries.
'It's amazing to think I'll be playing for a chance to get into the Masters,' said 16-year-old Liu Lok-tin, who joins Steven Lam Tsz-fung, Jason Hak Shun-yat, Roderick Staunton, Shinichi Mizuno and Terrence Ng as Hong Kong's representatives.
'I've stayed up overnight to watch the tournament on TV ever since I started playing five years ago,' Liu said. 'Amen Corner, the unbelievable course conditioning, the Green Jacket - it's an incredible incentive for all of us. It's going to be a really exciting week.'