NINE-TIME Major winner Gary Player leads the golf squad at the World Celebrity Pro-Am, which is being held in Haikou, Hainan Province, from Thursday to Sunday.

    As the premiere gathering of stars in a sporting environment in the Asia-Pacific region, the World Celebrity Pro-Am brings together dozens of internationally famous celebrities from the world of sport and entertainment and pairs them with professional golfers over competition that is fun for the participants, fans and all involved.

    Player is a retired South African professional golfer, widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of golf. Over his career, Player accumulated nine major championships on the regular tour and six Champions Tour major championship victories, as well as three Senior British Open Championships on the European Senior Tour.

    At the age of 29, Player won the 1965 U.S. Open and became the only non-American to win all four majors, known as the career Grand Slam. He has won 165 tournaments on six continents over six decades and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.

    Other golfing greats lined up to lead the way over the Mission Hills Haikou Blackstone Course include the big-hitting John Daly, a two-time Major winner, Mark O’Meara, the Masters and Open Championship winner in 1998 and Rich Beem, the 2002 PGA Championship title holder.

    They are joined by an equally impressive foursome of ladies in Solheim Cup star Suzann Pettersen, the Norwegian former world No. 2, Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist, runner-up at the recent U.S. Women’s Open, American Paula Creamer, the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open champion, and Natalie Gulbis, the glamor girl of the LPGA Tour who won the 2007 Evian Masters.

    Li Haotong, who participated in the Rio Games for Team China, is the only golfer from China.

    On May 1 this year, Li captured his first European Tour victory by winning the Volvo China Open. The 20-year-old is the youngest champion in China Open history.

    As with past years when top international stars have graced the field for the World Celebrity Pro-Am, the 2016 edition is no different. The big names include Academy Award-winning actor/producer Michael Douglas, superstar singer/actor Jay Chou, newly-inducted Basketball Hall of Famers Yao Ming and Allen Iverson, tennis great Boris Becker, a six-time Grand Slam winner, film director Feng Xiaogang and actor Wang Zhiwen.

    Dutch legends the De Boer twins, Frank and Ronald, lead a group of soccer players that include England internationals Robbie Fowler, Paul Scholes and Teddy Sheringham, Liverpool great Ian Rush, Scotland’s Gary McAllister and former Manchester United stars Dwight Yorke, David May and Lee Sharpe.

    (SD News)