Hong Kong ‘risks losing chance to host Aramco Team Series golf tournament if it presses ahead with public housing plan’
- Aramco Team Series championship director says building on part of Old Course in Fanling could make site less attractive for future events
- Three-day LIV golf event held in Adelaide in April forecast by organisers to generate economic benefits of more than US$70 million, Vicky Jones adds
Hong Kong risks losing the chance to host a Saudi Arabia-backed golf tournament if it presses ahead with building public housing on a section of its oldest course, the event organiser has warned.
The city is scheduled to host the Aramco Team Series (ATS) in October, but championship director of the tournament Vicky Jones said it might be moved to another city if the facility changed significantly.
“The Hong Kong Golf Club is currently the only venue in the city that has the facilities to stage the events of the scale of the forthcoming Aramco Team Series,” she told a public hearing of Hong Kong’s Town Planning Board.
Jones also warned that the city could risk losing millions of dollars in economic benefits if it misses out on an opportunity to host one of the LIV golf circuit’s 14 tournaments in 2024.
According to Jones, the three-day LIV event held in Adelaide, Australia, in April generated an estimated US$70 million (HK$548.8 million). She is also the championship director of LIV Golf in Singapore.
