Budding golf talents from six countries will compete for a place in the Asia Grand Final when the second Faldo Series Cambodia Championship tees off at the award-winning Sir Nick Faldo designed Angkor Golf Resort in Siem Reap tomorrow.

The two-round 36-hole event, which will be split into four different groups for boys and girls aged 12 to 21, has attracted 20 contestants including a lone entry like last year from Cambodia. The 19-year-old Thong Sokhamony will be the focus of local attention in a field that lines up golfers from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

For the winners the most attractive reward will be a ticket to the eighth Faldo Series Asia Grand Final, a World Amateur Golf ranking event to be hosted by the six-time Major champion at the Mission Hills Club in Shenzhen, China, next March.

Players can get a feel of the course and conditions during today’s practice ahead of tournament rounds over the next two days at 8:30am from the first tee.

“As has been the tradition with all Faldo Series events, a players’ clinic will be held at 3pm on Saturday followed by a grass roots clinic at 11am on Sunday,” General Manager of Angkor Golf Resort David Baron told the Post yesterday.

While announcing the Cambodian leg of his global initiative last month, Sir Nick Faldo said: “We hope to build on the success of our inaugural event last year and benefit more young golfers from Cambodia and neighbouring countries.

“Angkor Golf Resort, led by executive director Holic Tandijono and his team, put up a great event in 2012 that combined top class tournament experience for talented golfers with unique grass-roots activities for kids from the local community.”

Faldo is now working on another 36-hole project in Phnom Penh.

Tandijono welcomed the second edition of the Faldo Series and said the AGR enjoyed a close relationship with Sir Nick. “We share his passion for growing the game,” added the resort director.

South Korea’s 17-year-old Kim Dong Hyun won the overall championship last year. Despite finishing down the field, Cambodia’s only competitor Seng Vanseiha was given a special invitation to play at the Mission Hills, but for personal reasons he could not make the trip.

Established in 1996, 40 Faldo Series tournaments now take place in 30 countries worldwide with more than 7,000 golfers participating each year.

The 2013/2014 Faldo Series Asia schedule features a record 19 tournaments in 15 countries, including four in mainland China, two in India and the reamainder in the Philippines, Taiwan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Brunei, Japan, Pakistan, Indonesia and Thailand.

The Faldo Series Asia is supported by The R&A, ISPS Handa and Mission Hills. It is endorsed by the Asian Tour and the Asia Pacific Golf Federation.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam Golf Association has announced Laguna Lang Co Golf Club as the new venue for the Faldo Series Vietnam Championship for the next three years.

Golfers and non-golfers alike will benefit from several charitable initiatives during the annual event, which tees off on July 27 at the Danang course.

For the past five years, the Faldo Series has been a key part of Vietnam’s mission to grow golf in the country.