When golf tournaments get sponsor exemptions all wrong

I am all for sponsors’ exemptions and special invitations to local players but will somebody please explain to me who benefits from Chinese golfer Jun Liu shooting rounds of 84 and 82 at the Hainan Classic?

Or Senshou Cao recording rounds of 81 and 76 and Xinjun Zhang going 81 and 82? I fully understand why they would want a Chinese presence in the field.

A total of 26 Chinese golfers teed it up on the opening day and just 12 of them made the cut. 

You may well be thinking that Zhang and Lui are youngsters who are just setting out on their golfing journey. No. Zhang is 38, Lui is 39. Cao is 27 but his world ranking is 1,233 - and won’t be rising anytime soon. To me it all smacks of being an unwelcome distraction for those who were in China looking to win a DP World Tour event.

On the other side of the coin, back in October, Michael Brennan won the Bank of Utah Championship as a sponsor exemption in only his third PGA Tour start. But Brennan is not Zhang, Lui or Cao. 

If the DP World Tour is going to continue to open the door for local golfers to play alongside its stars please let’s draw some sort of line in the sand. We don’t need individuals who are going to miss the cut by 20 shots - it certainly doesn’t benefit them and it does nothing for the status or standing of the tournaments in which they are allowed to play.

In the tournament itself there was a proper redemption story. American Jordan Gumberg, who only kept hold of his DP World Tour card for this season thanks to a hole-out eagle on the 72nd hole of last October's Genesis Championship in South Korea, can add China to his list of favourite Asian destinations after a one-stroke victory at Mission Hills. He battled all day with playing partner Jorge Campillo before finally coming out on top.

A final round of 70 saw him finish 19 under par, with Campillo's birdie putt at the last staying up as he finished 18 under. And there was something for the home fans to cheer, with 17-year-old Chinese star Yanhan Zhou sharing third place on 15 under.

"I don't have words right now," Gumberg said. "Just to be able to plan your schedule knowing that you have a home for at least the next two or three years. After last year's ending of the season, this is amazing.

"Jorge played great all day, it was a battle the entire way. He was ahead at first, I was ahead, he was ahead, I was ahead, it just ended up a back-and-forth battle all day.

"He hit some phenomenal golf shots coming in and just putts weren't dropping for him - and putts weren't dropping for me either, so I'm just happy to be standing here talking to you right now."

It was Gumberg's second DP World Tour win, just over two years on from his SDC Championship success in South Africa in March 2024.

The leaders both started with birdies. Gumberg gave the shot back at the third but then birdied the par-five sixth to return to 18 under. Campillo was briefly ahead again after a birdie at the eighth but then bogeyed the next two.

Gumberg marched on with a birdie at the 11th, Campillo responding at the next two cut the gap back to one and that is how they finished.