Windy Shao

windysjf@hotmail.com

FORTY golf teams will participate in this year’s Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) League, organizers said at a ceremony at Mission Hills Dongguan on Wednesday.

Compared with the event’s first edition last year, 10 more teams registered this year, despite the impact of the current COVID-19 situation, said Han Zhishan, general manager of Mission Hills Golf Club. He said more teams are expected to join in as league matches will kick off at the end of May, which means more fierce competitions.

The league will last five months. All participating teams will be divided into four groups by drawing lots to participate in the preliminary round in June and July. After the semifinals in August, qualified teams will compete in the Grand Finals in October.

The champion team will win 12 sets of guest tickets for the 2023 Mission Hills Golfathon and one Haikou Mission Hills supreme black stone card.

The participants include those from Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Foshan, basically covering all the top amateur teams in the GBA, organizers said.

“After the amateur tour tournament in 2020 and the first GBA League last year, we have taken a big step towards our goal. The games are based on GBA cities, and we will continue to invite golf players from all over the world to push our league’s platform to new heights,” Han said.

Nanfeng Club, the defending champion, as well as powerhouses like Dongguan Eagles, Shenzhen Dream Team and Mission Hills Elite Team all joined the competition again this year.

Nanfeng beat Dongguan Eagles to win the championship last year. When talking about the goal for this year, Deng Zhifeng, captain of Nanfeng, said: “As a new team with a short history, we were very lucky to win the trophy from powerhouses like Dongguan Eagles last year. This year, we will do our best to achieve a satisfactory result.”