The Royal Trophy Golf Tournament will be played at the pristine Amata Spring Country Club January 9 – 11, 2009. The tournament was postponed last year due to the passing of The King of Thailand’s elder sister, Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana.

The Royal Trophy originates from a great concept of bringing eight of the very best European professional golfers to compete in a continental team event against the Asian side where golf may not have as long a history but in recent years many of the Asian players have made their mark in the golfing world. The Asian team comes from a region of three billion people including golf conscious Japan, China, India and Thailand. Three of the eight team members in 2007 were local heroes from Thailand.

Prayad Marksaeng from Thailand and Liang Wen-Chong of China were the first two golfers named to the 2008 Asian squad. The third is Korean Charlie Wi after he delivered three level par rounds of 70 to be just two shots off the lead going into the final day. On that final day Wi managed to maintain his composure and finished with a share of ninth with a four over round of 74. Wi called the Oakland Hills layout in Detroit the toughest course he had ever encountered. Jsapan’s Hideto Tanihara was announced as the fourth player to be selected for the 2008 Asian team and that was quickly followed by the naming of Toru Taniguchi as the fifth out of eight. Taniguchi represents a team which features great youth and energy but is well balanced with deep experience and match-play proficiency. A fantastic putter Taniguchi averaged a PGA tour best 27.19 putts per round this year and currently ranks fifth in the Japan Tour’s all-time money list.

By holding the Royal Trophy is January the event organizers hope the Thai winter season will keep the contestants both cool and dry.

This third edition of the Royal Trophy promises some exciting new elements including the inclusion of Australian, New Zealander and Pacific Island players. The Spaniard Ballesteros and Japanese golfing great Joe Ozaki have already confirmed their captaincy of the European and Asian Teams respectively.
“We have had two fantastic inaugural editions of the Royal Trophy. I am very much looking forward to captaining the European Team in January of 2009 in our defense of the Trophy,” said Ballesteros, the first ever European golfer to win at Augusta National’s Masters.

The Royal Trophy is the result of the legendary Spanish golfer Seve Ballesteros’ dream of bringing the three billion people Asian continent together to compete against the masters of team golf – Europe , in a Ryder Cup format. The first two editions of the Event were staged with great success as the matches attracted record galleries and featured the highest standard of professional golf.

The third edition of the Royal Trophy promises to bring to the fore some exciting new elements, presently under consideration, including the inclusion of Australian, New Zealander and Pacific Island players into the Asian Team. The Spaniard Ballesteros and Japanese golfing great Joe Ozaki have already confirmed their captaincy of the European and Asian Teams respectively.
“We have had two fantastic inaugural editions of the Royal Trophy. I am very much looking forward to captaining the European Team in January of 2009 in our defense of the Trophy,” said Ballesteros, the first ever European golfer to win at Augusta National’s Masters.
“I believe the Royal Trophy will play a similar role for Asian golf to that which the Ryder Cup played for our sport in Europe. The Royal Trophy will become one of the world’s great sporting competitions,” added the three-time Open Championship winner.

Prior to the first ever staging of the Championship five-time major winner Ballesteros requested the blessing from His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, the world’s longest reigning Monarch, for the holding of the historic matches in Thailand. In a most gracious act, His Majesty the King not only extended a warm welcome to the Kingdom but also elected to donate a perpetual 16-kilogram solid-silver Trophy – stewardship of which would become the principal award for the competition. The first two editions were staged in January 2006 and 2007 respectively with great success as the matches were played under glorious weather, attracted massive fan galleries, featured the highest standard of professional team golf and the players demonstrated a fantastic spirit of intense competition and rivalry while concurrently upholding the purest level of sportsmanship.

Over the two editions Ballesteros himself led the European effort as Captain and countered with some of the continent’s very best players including Ryder Cup stars Darren Clarke, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, David Howell, Robert Karlsson as well as legends of golf Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam.
The Asian Team in 2007 was led by Japan Tour Lifetime Member Massy Kuramoto in the first edition and then by 35-tournament title winner Joe Ozaki. The Asian troops to battle the Europeans have included many of Asia’s top talents including Jeev Milkha Singh, Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa from India, Zhang Lian-wei from China, Japan’s number one player Toru Taniguchi, Korean Y. E. Yang and Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee, Thaworn Wiratchant and Prom Meesawat.