Tour breaks new ground in Korea

LONDON, England -- British Open champion Padraig Harrington and local favorite K.J. Choi will lead the field for the European tour's inaugural Ballantine's Championship on the southern resort island of Jeju in March.

The $2.9 million event, to be held March 13-16 at Pinx Golf Club, is co-sanctioned by the Korea PGA and the Asian tour, and is the first European golf tournament in South Korea.

"As someone who cares passionately about Korean golf, I am delighted that the European tour is coming to my country for the first time," Choi told a news conference on Tuesday via video link two days after winning his seventh PGA event at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

The Asian tour announced later on Tuesday it had agreed to co-sanction the Korean tournament and the Indian Masters, ending the protracted row surrounding the Indian event.

The Indian Masters was first announced as being sanctioned only by the European Tour and the Indian Golf Union, a governing body for amateur golf in India.

At the time, Asian tour chairman Kyi Hla Han had accused the European tour of "an invasion into (Asian) territory."

After intense negotiations between the tours, the Asian Tour announced that the Indian Masters would be its season-opening event from February 7-10.

Meanwhile in PGA Tour news, there is likely to be a change of venue for the Barclays Championship in 2008, the opening tournament of the money-spinning FedEx Cup playoffs.

The Westchester Country Club in New York staged the 2007 edition but club president Philip M Halpern said in a statement that the PGA tour "has opted to end our current contract and move the Barclays to another venue."

Halpern previously told The New York Times and The Journal News of White Plains, N.Y., that the PGA tour wants to move the tournament to Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J.

If the tournament does shift to Ridgewood, it would be the biggest golf event in New Jersey since the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield.

The event is scheduled for August 21-24 and carries a $7 million purse. Tiger Woods skipped the qualifiers-only tournament last year, which was won by Steve Stricker. Woods won the two final legs of the four-event playoff to capture the inaugural FedEx Cup. E-mail to a friend

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