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[June 28, 2007, Shenzhen]: The 4th Mission Hills Golfathon, the world’s only golf tournament in such a large-scale marathon format, has already received over 2,500 applications from kick-off in May this year. From this year onwards, the tournament has been added a unique element: participants can experience the Olazabal Course, where this year’s Omega Mission Hills World Cup will take place. This distinctive advantage has further boosted the number of golfers from all over the world joining the game.
The unique Golfathon was organized in celebration of Mission Hills Golf Club affirmed by Guinness World RecordsTM as the World’s Largest Golf Club. The tournament has taken place for 3 consecutive years, and has become one of the traditions at Mission Hills. It aims at bringing golfers from different parts of the world to experience the ten golf courses reflecting the style and skills of each designer. This is a unique challenge found nowhere else in the world. The number of applicants to date is over 2,500. The eldest is 83-year-old while the youngest is only 7. More dramatically, the first and second applicants this year are exactly the first and thousandth last year. This perfectly reveals the spirit of the Golfathon.
To raise the level of challenge, participants are required to finish the nine qualifying rounds within five consecutive days, instead of seven days in the past, to be the Iron Men. Among the 120 Iron Men in 2006 Mission Hills Golfathon, many of them finished the first nine rounds within four days. The 4th Mission Hills Golfathon only kicked off two months ago and almost 60 participants have already become the Iron Men: the eldest is 66 while the youngest is 15. Some of them even finished all the nine rounds within three days.
The qualifying rounds will be until August 31st. The participants are grouped into 4 categories: Senior Division, Men’s Division, Women’s Division, and Junior Division. Based on 180-hole individual New Peoria handicap strokeplay format, top 50 players from the Men’s Division, 20 from Women’s and top 15 from the Senior and Junior respectively, a total of 100 players will be selected to enter the 18-hole final on September 9th on the Norman Course, with one of the highest difficulty index in Asia.
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