Hainan Classic 2025: Form stats for this week's co-sanctioned event

• Long, rolling venue with loads of sand

• Pulkkanen can secure maiden DP World Tour title

• Smylie ready to challenge for second Tour win

Tournament and Course Notes

The DP World Tour remains in China for the co-sanctioned Hainan Classic at Mission Hills. However, those who competed last week in Shanghai will have travelled over 1,200 miles south to tee-up on the holiday island of Hainan.

Located in the South China Sea, Hainan is known for its tropical climate and beach resorts. It is also China's southernmost point. This week's venue is in the north of Hainan Island, approximately six miles from the coast.

As with last week's venue in Shanghai, this week's course will be making its DP World Tour debut. The only previous experience of the Blackstone Course hosting a top level professional tournament was the 2011 World Cup of Golf.

Blackstone is laid out across 350 acres of gently rolling, volcanic turf and will be one of the longest courses on this year's DP World Tour schedule. Sand is more plentiful than at most Tour venues, although water is only really a threat on a handful of holes. This week's event will be co-sanctioned alongside the China Tour.

Betfair Exchange latest for the Hainan Classic

Six To Watch

With the field for the forthcoming Hainan Classic largely the same as it was in Shanghai last week, it's fair to suggest that the top of the leadboard is likely to be populated by the usual suspects.

Teeing-up at the Blackstone Course this Thursday will be three players who figured highly in last week's exciting conclusion of the Volvo China Open.

Hao Tong Li, Eugenio Chacarra and Tapio Pulkkanen were all well placed to win China's national open when teeing-up for the final round. Indeed, Tong Li and Chacarra were joint leaders of the tournament thru 54 holes.

Both of these golfers have already won on the DP World Tour this season, with Chacarra particularly ready to move to the next level.

The 25-year-old Spaniard turned professional three years ago and immediately signed up with the LIV Tour where he sensationally won a tournament in Bangkok in October 2022.

He has since departed the Saudi-backed Tour and is ready to make a name for himself in more traditional circles. It would be a huge surprise if he didn't contend again this coming weekend.

Pulkkanen, meanwhile, has stood on five DP World Tour podiums during his career but remains without a victory at this level. His form has improved in recent weeks and his last two starts in Asia have yielded finishes of 13th and seventh.

Betfair Sportsbook latest for the Hainan Classic

The consistent Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen goes again, while Ding Wengyi and Elvis Smylie should also be taken seriously.

Smylie claimed his first DP World Tour title in his native Australia before Christmas and he's a player who appears to be heading towards the world's top 100. He tied-15th in Shanghai on Sunday.

As for Wengyi, he posted a top-10 on home soil at the weekend and has played solidly on Tour this year. He could easily make it back-to-back victories for China following Ashun Wu's success on Sunday.

MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves

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