Bi-country golf tournament to host by Indonesia

Jakarta, Aug 23 (IANS)   The tournament organiser said that Indonesia will host a rotating golf championship vied for by competitors from Indonesia and Malaysia, slated from September 5 to 7 in a world class golf course in Bogor, West Java, on Wednesday.

The golf championship, titled "2017 Indonesian Golf Tour (IGT)-Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Championship" , will be the second after the first in Malaysia last year, reports Xinhua news agency.

"The golf tournament was aimed at developing quality of professional golfers in the respective countries," said the Head of Indonesia Golf Tour (IGT) Jimmy Masrin.

Each country would send teams of 12 golfers to the tournament that offers total rewards of 600 million rupiah (about $45,000), Jimmy added.

Indonesia Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said the golf tournament has significant potentialities to be developed into a sport tourism event.

Yahya said that Indonesia has many world class golf courses which would attract golf enthusiasts from Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia where the sport is gaining popularity among their middle class societies.