DP World Tour brings up 50 in China at Hainan Classic 

The next stop in the 2025 Race to Dubai calendar is this week’s Hainan Classic at Mission Hills Haikou, a milestone 50th event for the DP World Tour in China.

Over the past three decades, Golf’s Global Tour has been a regular visitor to the world's second most populous country since its first visit at the BMW Asian Open in 2004.

Spaniard Miguel Ángel Jiménez won that tournament – the first of seven that have been held in China on the DP World Tour before this week.

Among those was the introduction of the Volvo China Open on the DP World Tour schedule, serving as the season-opening event of the 2005 campaign and which last week celebrated its 30th anniversary.

Three further visits were made to China that season, starting with the TCL Classic – which ran from 2005 to 2007 – and then the Johnnie Walker Classic, which alternated venue year to year, and the return of the BMW Asian Open.

The growth of China’s presence on the DP World Tour schedule was further amplified by the inception of the HSBC Champions, the opening event of the 2006 season.

Held in November 2005, Sheshan International Golf Club played host to a star-studded international field, with England’s David Howell holding off then World Number One Tiger Woods to claim victory.

The tournament – initially sanctioned alongside the Asian Tour, Sunshine Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia - was the first of back-to-back tournaments in China, preceding the return of its national championship, again co-sanctioned alongside the China Tour.

The next big development came when it was elevated to World Golf Championships status in 2009, reflecting the region’s growing stature in international golf.

In 2012, the BMW Masters became the newest event on the DP World Tour schedule, with Lake Malaren Golf Club welcoming a high-calibre international field for four consecutive seasons.

A year later, the WGC-HSBC Champions also served as part of the DP World Tour’s Final Series as it continued to grow in significance.

China’s presence as an increasingly important player in the global golf market was further seen with the addition of the Shenzhen International to the DP World Tour schedule in 2015, the first of three consecutive editions.

But partly as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, China did not stage an event on the DP World Tour schedule for five years, with the final edition of the WGC-HSBC Champions being held in 2019, until the Volvo China Open made its return last season.

Shanghai played host to that event last week at Enhance Anting Golf Club, with the Tour now in Hainan this week for the second of back-to-back events in China that form part of the Asian Swing – the third of five Global Swings on this season’s DP World Tour schedule.

DP World Tour events in China