European Tour’s The Championship Moved from South Korea to Singapore

The lone European Tour golf tournament in South Korea will move to Singapore this spring, officials said Thursday.

The European Tour and the Asian Tour jointly announced that the tournament  titled The Championship, originally scheduled to be played in South Korea in May, will be held in Singapore instead.

Laguna National Golf and Country Club was unveiled as the new venue for the May 1-4 tournament.

The event started out in 2008 as the Ballantine’s Championship, but Chivas Brothers withdrew its sponsorship last October. At the time, the tournament’s promoter, Parallel Media Group (PMG), extended its current agreement to stage the event. The new corporate sponsor will be announced in the near future.

However, the European and Asian Tours said Thursday that “staging issues made it clear (hosting the May tournament in South Korea) was not going to be possible.”

“Tournament organizers acted quickly and decisively to move the tournament to Singapore,” the tours’ statement said. “As originally planned, a field of 156 players will battle it out for the lion’s share of a US$1.5 million prize fund.”

David Ciclitira, Chairman PMG, said the organizers are hoping to bring the tournament back to South Korea in 2015 and added, “The event continues to feature Korean players and to be extensively broadcast in Korea.”