UK digital television channel FreeSports will broadcast coverage of this week’s rescheduled Hong Kong Open golf tournament, which gets underway tomorrow (Thursday).
The event, which is usually co-sanctioned by the European Tour and the Asian Tour, had originally been due to take place from November 28 to December 1 last year. However, due to ongoing civil unrest in Hong Kong, the European Tour was forced to postpone the tournament until this week.
As the European Tour is already staging the South African Open this week, it is unable to commit to sanctioning the Hong Kong Open but the event will still be sanctioned by the Asian Tour.
Pay-television broadcaster Sky holds rights in the UK to the European Tour in a four-year deal that runs until 2022. The Hong Kong Open had therefore been without a broadcast partner in the UK but FreeSports, which is owned by Premier Sports, has stepped in to provide coverage on its free-to-air channel.
FreeSports’ coverage of the Hong Kong Open will begin at 3:30am tomorrow morning. The field includes Open champion Shane Lowry (pictured) and US Ryder Cup player Tony Finau.