With slightly less than three weeks to go before on-line voting for the inaugural Global Golf Awards ends, the number of total valid votes cast has hit a peak of 80,087. This is a substantial increase from the last high of 68,178 recorded on May 29. “We are excited that the global interest in the on-line poll has been so enthusiastic which is a solid validation of the distinction and prestige that the golf club industry attaches to the Global Golf Awards,” said Alice Ho, Business Manager of the Asia Pacific Golf Group, the organisation that owns the programme. “We had extended the duration of the on-line voting because many golf clubs were in lockdown and we expect a big rush in the next three weeks,” Ho added. To participate in the on-line poll, all that one needs to do is to click on: http://globalgolfawards.asiapacificgolfgroup.com/ Follow this with your selection of territory and the club that you want to vote for. That’s all!   The Global Golf Awards on-line poll will be “live” until July 31, 2020. The Global Golf Awards will be presented at the Awards Gala Banquet of the World Golf Expo at a date to be announced on March 18, 2021 in Haikou, Hainan.

2 June 2020, Mission Hills – In its latest issue of Asian Golf, the Asia Pacific Golf Group has once again recognised Mission Hills Group’s Chairman and CEO – Dr. Ken Chu and Vice-Chairman –  Tenniel Chu as Asia’s Most Powerful People in Golf for 2020. The Chu brothers have topped this Asia’s Power Hitters list for the past seven years, since the award’s inception.   This recognition is made more significant as it come amidst the challenging circumstances that the industry is facing due to the COIVD-19 pandemic. “It is an honour and privilege for my brother and I to receive this recognition and we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our members, team members and partners whom have supported us since Mission Hills started close to 30 years ago,” said Tenniel Chu. “This will certainly be a great motivation for Mission Hills to continuously innovate as we strive to create happy, healthy and harmonious lifestyles for all. As the world recovers from the pandemic, we believe that sports such as golf which are enjoyed in the great outdoors with ample space and lush greenery will become a lifestyle of choice for many,” said Dr. Ken Chu. He added, “At Mission Hills, we will continue to make the sport accessible to all, including at Mission Hills Haikou which is the world’s largest public golf resort. Staying united, I am confident that the industry will pull through as we look forward to brighter days ahead.” Asian Golf launched the award in 2014 to recognise the men and women driving the growth of golf in Asia, based on criteria which includes the scale of involvement with golf, measurable investments in golf projects and commitment to grow the game of golf.  “For any industry to grow, there is a need for recognition and acknowledgement – there is a need for heroes to help set standards and with this list, we are glad to have played a role in helping to build global recognition for the movers and shakers of the Asian golf industry,” said Mike Sebastian, Chief Executive Officer of the Asia Pacific Golf Group. The awards cited that Mission Hills is “arguably the biggest showcase of golf anywhere in the world” and that the Chu brothers have not only realised the vision of their late father and founder of Mission Hills, Dr. David Chu, but also transformed the business in a monumental way based on the “Golf and More” philosophy into multi-faceted integrated resorts. Today, the Group operates 22 world-class golf courses across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area and the Hainan Free Trade Port, both regions poised for growth in line with the nation’s development strategies. Mission Hills Haikou will also be the venue of the inaugural World Golf Expo come March 2021, the world’s first hybrid golf business summit, trade show and tournaments. For more information on Mission Hills Group, please visit our website at www.missionhillschina.com. To understand more about Asia’s Most Powerful People in Golf, please refer to the latest edition of Asian Golf.

The Inaugural World Golf Expo (WGE) has been calibrated to get the golf industry back on the pathway to recovery. Like all industries, the golf industry has been hammered on all fronts. Tournaments, professional and amateur alike have been postponed or cancelled totally. Golf clubs have been forced into lockdowns. Golfers have been “quarantined” in the sense that they have not been able to enjoy playing the beautiful game. All this mayhem caused by a tiny microscopic microbe called the Coronavirus. The biggest setback to life in modern times! Against a backdrop of doom and gloom, WGE has been created and programmed to get the battered industry back on track and humming again. After the havoc created by the global virus attack, the time is right for the “Dawn Of A New Era” which is the theme of WGE. Purposefully structured to kick-start the industry and to get it back on a set of bold and new footings. WGE realises that virtually every industry on the Planet will be forced to operate off new paradigms and this couldn’t have come at a better time for golf. The industry is ready for new ideas to pick itself up and embark on changes that are going to be epic in terms of spurring on the industry towards new heights. WGE will be staged in a purpose-built home in Haikou, Hainan which will be its hub going forward. It will be staged at Mission Hills Golf Resort which is the world’s largest golf resort. It is a world-class venue – a one-of-a-kind facility complete with ten great golf courses, five-star hotels, convention centre, entertainment, shopping and dining. The event dates are March 15 – 19, 2021. Mission Hills Haikou is a one-stop complex with no match anywhere. In the coming months, WGE will unravel an exciting package of top international speakers and a programme specially crafted to look at the new pathway for golf especially in the Asia Pacific. In the meantime, the brand-new website for WGE is now “live” and open for viewing at https://www.worldgolfexpo.com/ WGE will be the biggest and most comprehensive knowledge event and trade show for both the golf industry and consumers alike.   WGE – Laying Bare A Market of 20 Million Golfers In The Asia Pacific! A Joint Production of The Asia Pacific Golf Group And The Mission Hills Group of China   ABOUT MISSION HILLS GROUP: The Mission Hills Group - owner and operator of world-class resorts in the heart of the Pearl River Delta and on the tropical island of Hainan – is a pioneer in China’s hospitality, sports and leisure industry. The fully-integrated Mission Hills resorts span more than 40 square kilometres, including 22 championship golf courses – making it the world’s largest golf facility – plus five-star hotels, award-winning spas and volcanic mineral springs, international convention centers, state-of-art golf academies, a 20-pitch football training base, Asia’s largest basketball school and Asia’s biggest tennis facility. Other significant projects at Mission Hills include shopping and entertainment at Mission Hills Centreville, Bromsgrove School Mission Hills in collaboration with the 550-year-old British boarding school, co-operations with world-renowned hotel brands Hard Rock, Renaissance and Ritz-Carlton, Mission Hills Movie Town and ground-breaking partnerships with FC Barcelona, NBA and PGA of America. For more information, visit www.missionhillschina.com or follow Mission Hills China on social media.   ABOUT ASIA PACIFIC GOLF GROUP: The Asia Pacific Golf Summit started in 2007 when the first conference was staged in Singapore. Since then, it has grown to become the Asia Pacific’s top knowledge and business networking event for the golf industry. The Summit is owned and produced by the Asia Pacific Golf Group (2014) Pte Ltd (APGG), the leader in golf publishing and events in the region. APGG produces and owns the following:   Asian Golf  Asia Pacific Golf Summit Asian Golf Awards APGG is a global force in golf with a highly focused perspective on Asia! World Golf Expo – Spearheading A Paradigm Shift For Golf! WGE 2021 is a collaboration between the Mission Hills Group and the Asia Pacific Golf Group. World Golf Expo 2021 (WGE 2021) - The Total Golf Show! www.worldgolfexpo.com   www.asiapacificgolfgroup.com  

The Inaugural World Golf Expo (WGE) has been officially launched! The brand-new mega event will be staged in Haikou, the capital city of Hainan, often referred to as China’s Hawaii. The WGE is the successor of the Asia Pacific Golf Summit (APGS) which has been the dominant Summit on the business of golf for thirteen years. With effect from 2020, the reins of APGS is being taken over by the giant Mission Hills Group of China, the world’s largest golf resort with 22 golf courses. The new event is not just a normal progression of APGS but a paradigm shift in terms of scale, size and mission. The new event is designed to not only give golf a new sense of purpose in Asia but to reach out to all stake holders around the world and to help bring about a unification for the general betterment of the golf industry. Like everything that the Mission Hills Group undertakes, WGE is being planned to be a very thorough and all-encompassing event that is in keeping with the corporate ethos of the organisation which put simply, is to either be the pioneer of an initiative or be the biggest and best in it. In this context, WGE is definitely the first of its kind and is planned to become the biggest. In terms of scale and scope, it is being planned to be a totally unique event. “APGS has been a tremendously successful event, and while WGE pays homage to its roots, it will also take it to the next level covering multiple bases,” said Tenniel Chu, the vice-chairman of the Mission Hills Group and the chairman of the WGE Organising Committee. According to Chu, WGE is being structured to address the following key pillars: • A global golf trade exposition; • An international golf business summit; • An international agronomy symposium; • A global golf awards recognition event; • A series of professional and amateur golf tournaments; Collectively, Chu envisions WGE to “take on carnival proportions” designed to showcase the latest and the best in all things golf and to also stimulate and encourage innovative thinking relating to promoting the growth of golf on a global scale. “There has never been a better time to promote golf in this region given the fact that Asia and the Pacific region is still the world’s fastest growing major region, contributing more than two-thirds to global growth,” Chu pointed out. The WGE’s permanent base will be Haikou, which is the home base for Mission Hills’ Hainan operations. Its location is very central to all of Asia and its year-round tropical climate makes it a perfect setting as the golf capital of the region. Another supportive reason for basing the WGE in Haikou according to Chu is that “Hainan has been given the task of establishing a basic free-trade port system by 2025 and a world-class free-trade port by 2035 and this will be another big boon to the global golf industry.” This is in addition to the fact that Hainan is already well-established as an international tourism island, with visa-free entry for residents of 59 countries and 300 flight routes connecting 100 cities globally, making it one of the most accessible provinces in China. Against this strong business backdrop, Mike Sebastian, CEO of APGG and the producer for WGE said, "The plus factors for staging WGE in Hainan are simply overwhelming when you consider that it is home to Mission Hills in Haikou which is part of the world's largest golf resort." Mission Hills Haikou is purpose-built for WGE and it has everything to offer as a true global showcase for golf. The dates for the WGE are set for October 14 – 16, 2020. "While the show dates are set for October 14 to 16, the intention is to have a host of activities that will run concurrently with the main core events of WGE," said Sebastian. The WGE trade show exposition is slated to open on October 14 and will run through to October 16. The first day will be exclusively for the golf trade and invited guests. The other days will be open to the general public. “We expect an excellent turn-out of golf enthusiasts and the golf trade to attend the trade show from China, the ASEAN region, Japan and South Korea,” according to Sebastian. “One of the stand-out features of the WGE trade show is that we will have an area dedicated for open-air demonstrations of various agronomical products which is going to be truly a unique experience for golf course operators and besides this, we will also be having a special demo-day for golf club equipment where consumers can actually test golf clubs at a driving range,” Chu revealed. The World Golf Summit, the business conference component of WGE will be staged over two days, starting on October 15 and culminating on October 16. “The World Golf Summit will be a two-day deep-dive event in that it will be set up by a major theme-setting keynote address followed by half-day workshop sessions focused on key business topics impacting the industry,” said Sebastian. One of the features of APGS has been the Asian Golf Awards, recognised as the pre-eminent recognition event for the golf industry in the Asian Pacific. It has been widely regarded as the “Oscars” of the industry. Under the WGE umbrella, the Asian Golf Awards will be re-branded as the Global Golf Awards. The Global Golf Awards will be an expansion on the 20-year long heritage of the Asian Golf Awards and Chu observed, “It is a natural progression for us to grow the recognition event into a global extravaganza and given the scope of the WGE, it makes good sense for us to create a truly global recognition event that comes with a long and trusted pedigree”. The Global Golf Awards will be launched via an on-line poll that will run for a three-month period starting on March 1 through to the end of May 2020. Delegate and exhibitor registrations will be formally open on March 31 and details will be made available on WGE’s official web site at www.worldgolfexpo.com ABOUT MISSION HILLS GROUP: The Mission Hills Group - owner and operator of world-class resorts in the heart of the Pearl River Delta and on the tropical island of Hainan – is a pioneer in China’s hospitality, sports and leisure industry. The fully-integrated Mission Hills resorts span more than 40 square kilometres, including 22 championship golf courses – making it the world’s largest golf facility – plus five-star hotels, award-winning spas and volcanic mineral springs, international convention centers, state-of-art golf academies, a 20-pitch football training base, Asia’s largest basketball school and Asia’s biggest tennis facility. Other significant projects at Mission Hills include shopping and entertainment at Mission Hills Centreville, Bromsgrove School Mission Hills in collaboration with the 550-year-old British boarding school, co-operations with world-renowned hotel brands Hard Rock, Renaissance and Ritz-Carlton, Mission Hills Movie Town and ground-breaking partnerships with FC Barcelona, NBA and PGA of America. For more information, visit www.missionhillschina.com or follow Mission Hills China on social media. ABOUT ASIA PACIFIC GOLF GROUP: The Asia Pacific Golf Summit started in 2007 when the first conference was staged in Singapore. Since then, it has grown to become the Asia Pacific’s top knowledge and business networking event for the golf industry. The Summit is owned and produced by the Asia Pacific Golf Group (2014) Pte Ltd (APGG), the leader in golf publishing and events in the region. APGG produces and owns the following: Asian Golf Asia Pacific Golf Summit Asian Golf Awards APGG is a global force in golf with a highly focused perspective on Asia! Please address all enquiries to: Mike Sebastian Executive Producer World Golf Expo Tel: +65-91528162 e-mail: mike@asiapacificgolfgroup.com WGE 2020 is a collaboration between the Mission Hills Group and the Asia Pacific Golf Group. World Golf Expo 2020 (WGE 2020) - The Total Golf Show! www.worldgolfexpo.com   www.asiapacificgolfgroup.com