Bank to end Hong Kong sponsorship

This November’s Hong Kong Open, the final qualifying event for the Dubai World Championship, will be the last with banking group UBS as sponsors.

George O’Grady, chief executive of the European Tour, said: “We thank UBS for their five-year sponsorship of the Hong Kong Open and their outstanding leadership and vision.

“We also acknowledge their early notification regarding the future as we can now work with PMG, the promoters, in securing a new sponsor for 2010 and beyond.”

Prize money at Fanling on November 12-15 will be £1.8m (€1.96m) and at the end of the week the top 60 players on the “Race To Dubai” money list will qualify for golf’s richest-ever event in Dubai the following week.

Two years ago Swiss-based UBS turned to the government of Singapore for fresh funding after incurring huge losses and last month they agreed to pay more than £560m (€610m) in fines to the United States over tax evasion issues.