Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps and Hollywood movie star Catherine Zeta-Jones will headline the Mission Hills Star Trophy, a ground-breaking celebrity golf pro-am tournament to be held here from October 28-31.
The star-studded golf event features a host of big names in entertainment and sports world. Also coming will be British actor Hugh Grant and U.S. actor Matthew McConaughey as well as Chinese movie director Feng Xiaogang and actor Chen Daoming.
"I am happy to be back to China after winning eight golds at Beijing Olympic Games," said Phelps at the launch press conference on Wednesday. "Hopefully I can perform better on the golf course than in the water."
US swimmer Michael Phelps looks on during the press conference for the Mission Hills Star Trophy in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, Oct. 27, 2010. The Mission Hills Star Trophy is held between Oct. 28 and Oct. 31. Twenty professional golfers along with 20 celebrities and 120 amateurs will be taking part in Star Trophy.
The superstar participants will be part of a field that includes 20 celebrities, 20 professionals and 120 amateurs at the four-day golf event. Amateur teams of two will play with a celebrity and a professional golfer on the first two days of the event in a team scramble format.
The weekend play will then be in four-ball stroke play format between 20 teams consisting of a celebrity and a professional, with a 36-hole individual professional event running simultaneously with a 1.28-million-U.S.-dollar prize, the richest individual prize in Asian golf.
The list of professional golfers is impressive with the participation of Greg Norman and Colin Montgomerie. Norman used to hold the world No. 1 position for 331 weeks and Montgomerie was this year's European Ryder Cup captain. Home favorite Zhang Lianwei is also on the professional golfers' list.
The Mission Hills Star Trophy is one of the major events supporting a government-led initiative to make the Hainan island a leading international tourism destination in the coming years.