Tiger Woods happy to be in Asia
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-11-08 23:47

It features top-ranking players and leaders from the money lists of four international tours. Eight exemptions are reserved for Chinese players.

American golfer Tiger Woods answers questions at a press conference in Shanghai about the HSBC Champions Golf Tournament that he and other leading golfers will play this week. [AFP]

First prize is $833,000, and players who don't make the cut - top 60 and ties - will still earn a paycheque.

China, a fast-growing golf market, has hosted five tournaments on the 2005 European Tour. The Champions officially begins the 2006 season on the European tour.

Woods said the lengthy trip from Atlanta, where he finished second in the Tour Championship to Bart Bryant, and travel in general, doesn't bother him.

"I've always enjoyed playing around the world," Woods said.

Although he's been away four years, Woods, known here as "Laohu Wuzi," or "Old Tiger" Woods, says China feels somehow familiar given his upbringing - his mother is Thai.

"This is how I was raised," Woods said.

Tiger's presence to advance golf in China by a decade

Chinese number one Zhang Lian-wei believes the presence of Tiger Woods at this week's HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai will advance the spread of golf in China by a decade.