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MIAMI -- More than 110 million homes in China will have access to live television coverage of the final two rounds of the Players Championship next week at Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida, the PGA Tour said on Wednesday. A deal with the Chinese national television station has
expanded television coverage of the tournament unofficially
dubbed "the fifth major" to 164 countries in 35 languages. "The PGA Tour is very pleased to have secured live coverage
of this marquee event on CCTV 5 in China for the first time this
year," Tim Leisure, the PGA Tour's vice president for
international television, said in a statement. "The continued international growth in distribution of The
Players is a testament to the quality and stature of this
tournament." Golf is poised for a massive boom in China, which is
co-sanctioning six events on the 2006 European Tour. Fifty new courses a year are expected to be built in the
world's most populous nation by 2009. The Players Championship, which annually attracts one of the
strongest fields in golf, will take place on the Stadium Course
at the TPC at Sawgrass from March 23-26. American veteran Fred Funk will defend the title he won last
year by a shot from compatriots Tom Lehman and Scott Verplank
and Britain's Luke Donald.
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