Scott and Ivanovic add glamour to Singapore Open golf (Singapore Open Diary)

SENTOSA - The Barclays Singapore Open is certainly not lacking in star power. And that is not just in golf. When you have the likes of Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington, each of whom have three Majors to their name, it does make for a great tournament.

But it also has Adam Scott, the World No.3 as recently as early 2007 and the Australian golf pin-up, whose girlfriends are as much news as his game. Scott, who briefly dated actress Kate Hudson in early 2008, is here with his current girlfriend Ana Ivanovic, the tennis star.

The gorgeous-looking Serbian star has been by Scotts side for many of the years big golf events, just as Scott was at her side at Wimbledon.

Scott, hoping to find the winning number in Singapore, where he won in 2005 and 2006, has brought along Ivanovic to Singapore and the pair has been attending a series of social gatherings.

Belgrade-born Ivanovic, 21, who split with Spanish tennis player Fernando Verdasco in January this year, was world No.1 at Wimbledon last year but has since slipped and is now ranked No.22 in the world. As for Scott, he was No.3 in early 2007, but is now down to No.76 in the world.

But ask Scott if the romance has taken a toll on his golf, he shoots back: A lot of people point out a lot of things when you are doing badly. But they didnt point to them when I was playing well. Thats the way the game is.

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Fickle weather

The weather here at the Singapore Open has changed literally by the hour. It was nice and pleasant in the morning; then warm by 10 a.m. and it became cloudy with a spot of rain by noon. Then it was back to being warm and sunny for a very brief while before the clouds opened up once again, this time for some heavy showers.

Play finally had to be halted at 1.45 p.m. in the afternoon when the downpour became very heavy and was accompanied by lightning.

The heavy rain brought back memories of the 2006 Singapore Open, when the tournament had to be truncated to three rounds and the leaders of third round, Adam Scott and Ernie Els played a three-hole play-off, which was won by Scott.

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Richest in the world this week

The Barclays Singapore Open golf is the richest golf event in the world this week. The field which has a number of Major winners, carries a bigger purse than the Volvo World Matchplay being held in Spain at the same time.

Compared to Singapore Opens $5 million, the Volvo Matchplay has on offer Euros 3.25 million, which translates to just over $4.8 million. The field at Matchplay comprises only 16 players, including Indias Jeev Milkha Singh, who incidentally won the Singapore Open last year.

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Tee for Green at Singapore Open

A green initiative, called Tee for Green, will see Ricoh, the official office solutions provider and World Sport Group, get together to plant a lot of trees for every birdie, eagle and albatross to support the Garden City Fund by contributing to the development and awareness of Fort Canning Parks first butterfly trail in Singapore.

On the final day of this week’s Open, 10 plants will be pledged for every birdie, 50 plants for an eagle and 100 plants for an albatross or hole-in-one.

Butterfly-attracting shrubs are chosen to increase the biodiversity at Fort Canning Park, where special educational storyboards will be put up to enhance the appreciation of butterflies at the trail.