Padraig Harrington feels he will have to produce some of his very best golf to defend his Iskandar Johor Open title in Malaysia this week.
Harrington ended a two-year wait for a title 12 months ago with a three-shot victory at Horizon Hills Golf and Country Club in Johor Bahru when the tournament was part of the Asian Tour. Now co-sanctioned for the first time with the European Tour, Harrington will have to fend off competition from Henrik Stenson, Camilo Villegas, Anthony Kim and Louis Oosthuizen among others.
"There are 156 guys here this week, and most - if not all - of them are very good players. So you're going to have to play very well and hole a lot of putts to win the tournament," the three-time major winner told the European Tour website.
"It's very hard to predict who's going to win a golf tournament these days because pretty much every player in the field is quite capable on their day.
"So it's always better to focus on your own game rather than on anyone else. All you can do is just give it your best shot and see where it takes you."
Harrington, though, expects to take on a much different Horizon Hills course from a year ago, where he triumphed with a winning score of 20-under-par.
"It's always nice to come back to a golf course where you've won before. It obviously comes with certain expectations, and hopefully I can live up to them this week," he added.
"The course is very different to the one we played last year. A few of the holes have been lengthened, the rough's much heavier and the fairways are very soft, whereas they were pretty firm last year.
"So whilst we were getting 30 to 40 yards of run here last year, you probably won't be getting any this year. So it'll be interesting to see how it affects the scoring - I certainly don't think the winning score will be as low as last year's."
The Iskandar Johor Open is one of the fastest growing tournaments on the Asian Tour and has attracted some of the best golfers in the world. The event was successfully staged at the Royal Johor Country Club for the first three years and at Horizon Hills Golf and Country Club in 2010.
It returns to Johor for the fifth time where once again at Horizon Hills, golf fans will be able to witness yet another exciting golf tournament which is staking its claim as one of the top events on the Asian Tour calendar. It reaches a new level on the international golf schedule with its elevation to a jointly sanctioned tournament with the Asian and European Tours starting 2011.
Since the inaugural event in 2007, the prize money for the tournament has increased by more than four-fold from US$300,000 in 2007 to US$1.25 million in 2010. In 2011, the prize money will grow to a minimum of US$2 million.
Past winners include Artemio Murakami of Philippines who won the inaugural event in 2007 and South African Retief Goosen who took home the prestigious prize in 2008. Korean superstar KJ Choi lifted the coveted trophy in 2009 and Ireland’s Padraig Harrington ended a two-year winless run in 2010 with a very popular win.
2010 also saw the best field in Johor yet, with the finest players on the Asian Tour and 2010 European Ryder Cup Winning Team Captain Colin Montgomerie.
2011 looks set to be the championship’s most exciting edition yet, with a field of the European Tours’ finest players facing off against the best that Asian golf has to offer.
A total of 156 international golfers are expected to compete in this prestigious global event this year.
