Tough draw for Volvo Championship in Durban
A host of Europe’s most established stars will feature at The European Tour’s ‘Tournament of Champions,’ taking place at the Durban Country Club, South Africa, from the 9th to 12th January 2014.
With 17 nationalities currently represented on the entry list, South Africa’s global strength in golf is highlighted by their eight-strong contingent as the 2011 Masters Champion and recent winner of the Alfred Dunhill Championship Charl Schwartzel and six-time European Tour winner Richard Sterne both added their names into the mix this week.
They join four time Major winner Ernie Els, defending Champion and winner of the 2010 Open Championship, Louis Oosthuizen, 2012 Champion Branden Grace along with Darren Fichardt, Dawie Ven der Walt and Thomas Aitken.
Schwartzel commented, “I am excited to open my season in front of my home fans and to be competing against such a strong field of champions. It is pretty impressive to have so many South Africans qualifying and with the two past winners also being South African, it is definitely a title I would love to win.”
While the South Africans golfers look to seal a winning start to the year, the Europeans have an added agenda. In a Ryder Cup year the USD 4 million prize fund on offer to the limited-qualifying field at the Volvo Golf Champions could make all the difference to players looking to claim a place on the 2014 European Ryder Cup team.
All three past winners of the Volvo Golf Champions will be in the field; 2010 Champion Paul Casey, 2012 Champion Branden Grace and 2013 Champion Louis Oosthuizen.
Casey will be eager to reclaim a spot on Europe’s Ryder Cup team after returning to top form after various injuries with an impressive win at the 2013 Irish Open.
Trying to consolidate their positions will be two players who hit top form during the European Tour’s Final Series - Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño, winner at the BMW Masters in Shanghai and Victor Dubuisson, who triumphed at the Turkish Airlines Open.
Crowd favourite Miguel Ángel Jiménez will arrive in Durban with momentum on his side after extending his own record as The European Tour’s oldest winner by retaining his Hong Kong Open title last week a few weeks before his 50th birthday. With 13 victories since turning 40 and 20 in total, Jiménez now has his sights set on becoming Europe’s oldest Ryder Cup player next year.
Recent Nedbank Golf Challenge winner, Thomas Björn, also leaves 2013 on a high note having enjoyed a significant boost to his 2014 Ryder Cup campaign winning the Nedbank Golf Challenge last week.
It was his 15th European Tour victory taking him to the top of the 2014 Race to Dubai. The 42-year-old Björn said of the win, “This is right up there with the best days of my career.”
Italy’s Matteo Manassero, a four-time winner on the European Tour before his twentieth birthday, will be hoping to make headway on his ambitions to make his Ryder Cup debut in 2014 while a host of golf’s other rising stars will be looking for their own fairytale week.
They include Peter Uihlein , winner of the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year having won his maiden title at the 2013 Madeira Islands Open, Korea’s 23 year old Jin Jeong winner of the 2013 Perth International and Asia’s newest superstar, 24 year old Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who qualified with a win at the Maybank Malaysian Open will all be hoping to win this elite title in January.
Per Ericsson, President of Volvo Event Management, said: "We are going to have a great group of The European Tour’s best golfers gathered at the fantastic Durban Country Club.
The event also creates the perfect link to our client golf as we also host the World Final of the Volvo World Golf Challenge at the same time, where our customers have the chance to qualify for a once in a lifetime opportunity of teaming up with the stars during the Friday of the Championship in Playing with the Pros.”
Guy Kinnings, Global Head of Golf, IMG, the tournament’s co-owners, said: “The strength of South African golf is really illustrated by the number of great South African champions who have qualified for this season opening event of 2013 Champions.
They join a great field of European and International Champions with some of the Tour’s most exciting young stars and Europe’s most prolific winners. It should be a fantastic week of golf with plenty for the home crowds to cheer about.
The Championship is returning for the second consecutive year to the Province of KwaZulu-Natal and to the magnificent Durban Country Club. The Championship is being supported by the Provincial Government’s Department for Economic Develop and Tourism, who began a relationship with the Event in 2013 having understood the tourism and business benefits of hosting the Tournament in the Province.
The same week, the World Final of the Volvo World Golf Challenge – Volvo’s global tournament for customers – will be contested in Durban. The World Finalists qualified through local and national tournaments in 38 countries around the world. In what is a genuine ‘money can’t buy’ experience, the top finishers from the World Final get the chance to play together with the stars of The European Tour on the Friday of the Volvo Golf Champions, live on television, in front of a worldwide audience of millions. It’s called ‘Playing with the Pros’ – an opportunity that exists nowhere else in golf.
Only European Tour players who have won an event on the previous year’s International Schedule and current Tour Members with more than ten European Tour victories qualify for the Championship.
For more information, please visit www.volvoingolf.com.
The 2014 player field and they way they qualified is as follows:
2013 European Tour winners
1. Thomas Aiken Avantha Masters
2. Kiradech Aphibarnrat Maybank Malaysian Open
3. Thomas Björn Omega European Masters
4. Gregory Bourdy ISPS Handa Wales Open
5. Paul Casey Irish Open
6. Jamie Donaldson Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship
7. Victor Dubuisson Turkish Airlines Open
8. Ernie Els BMW International Open
9. Gonzalo Fdez-Castaño BMW Masters
10. Darren Fichardt Africa Open
11. Tommy Fleetwood Johnnie Walker Championship
12. Stephen Gallacher Omega Dubai Desert Classic
13. Michael Hoey M2M Russian Open
14. David Howell Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
15. Mikko Ilonen Nordea Masters
16. Raphael Jacquelin Open de Espana
17. Jin Jeong Perth International
18. Joost Luiten Lyoness Open powered by Greenfinity
19. David Lynn Portugal Masters
20. Matteo Manassero BMW PGA Championship
21. Louis Oosthuizen Volvo Golf Champions
22. Morten Ørum Madsen South African Open
23. Julien Quesne Lindt Italian Open
24. Brett Rumford Ballantine's Championship
25. Charl Schwartzel Alfred Dunhill Championship
26. Marcel Siem Trophee Hassan II
27. Richard Sterne Joburg Open
28. Simon Thornton Open Najeti Hotels and Golf, St Omer
29. Peter Uihlein Madeira Islands Open
30. Dawie Van Der Walt Tshwane Open
31. Chris Wood Commercialbank Qatar Masters
Past winner of the Volvo Golf Champions
32. Branden Grace
Players with 10 or more official Race to Dubai/European Tour Order of Merit tournament wins
33. Darren Clarke
34. Padraig Harrington
35. Miguel Angel Jiménez
36. Robert Karlsson
37. Colin Montgomerie
38. José Maria Olazabal
Volvo in Golf
For more than a quarter of a century, Volvo In Golf has been an ever-growing and powerful presence in world sport. Since joining forces with the European Tour in 1988, the company has regularly refreshed and re-invigorated its events, and so too the resulting media interest and impact. With golf and its values serving as the perfect common ground, this unbroken partnership has enabled the building and strengthening of relationships between Volvo and its customers of today and tomorrow. And as the Tour has spread its boundaries and become truly global, so too have the presence and awareness of the Volvo brand and its premium-quality products.
Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, Volvo Event Management operates on behalf of both Volvo Cars and the Volvo Group, running three prestigious professional tournaments as well as the leading worldwide event for customers. This unique and wide-ranging collection links professional and club golf together.
European Tour events:
Volvo Golf Champions – The European Tour’s ‘Tournament of Champions’
Volvo China Open - The Open Golf Championship of China
Volvo World Match Play Championship – World-class Golf at its Best
Corporate events:
Volvo World Golf Challenge - The World’s Most Exciting Golfing Experience
One of the most inclusive global golf series in the world aimed to Volvo’s customers, with its World Final staged in conjunction with the Volvo Golf Champions. Volvo's customers are then offered the golf experience of a lifetime by Playing with the Pros during the professional tournament, a completely unique possibility.
Volvo Event Management has been headed by its President, Per Ericsson since June 2008 and has a core in-house staff supported by specialist consultants.
www.volvoingolf.com
http://www.facebook.com/volvoingolf
http://twitter.com/volvoingolf
About IMG
IMG Worldwide is a global sports, fashion and media business, with 3,500 employees operating in more than 30 countries around the globe. IMG’s areas of expertise are diverse and wide ranging: IMG College; IMG’s Joint Ventures in India, Brazil, China and Turkey; IMG Media; IMG Events and Federations; IMG Golf and IMG Tennis; IMG Fashion; IMG Models; IMG Art+Commerce; IMG Clients; IMG Academy; IMG Consulting and IMG Licensing. More information is available at www.imgworld.com. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
About KZN
The KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Authority, trading as Tourism KwaZulu-Natal (TKZN), was established in terms of the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Act, 1996 as amended by Act No. 2 of 2002. In terms of the aforementioned Act, TKZN is responsible directly and indirectly for the development, promotion and marketing of tourism into and within the province.
Prior to 1994, tourism marketing was a function of national government. However, following the installation of a democratic national government in that year, this responsibility was devolved to the provinces. Provinces are now responsible for both tourism product development and the marketing of their regions both domestically and internationally. At the national level the Department of Tourism utilises South African Tourism as its marketing arm with its role to market the country generically to international markets.
The vision of Tourism KwaZulu-Natal is to position the Province of KwaZulu-Natal as Africa’s leading tourism destination, nationally and internationally.
The mission of this organisation is to initiate, facilitate, co-ordinate and implement:
• strategic tourism marketing, and
• demand–driven tourism development programmes
This grows tourism and thereby serving to achieve:
• the transformation of the tourism sector within the province; and
• economic benefits to all stakeholders and the Province
The Zulu Kingdom or the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is an enticing, spectacular and fascinating multi-cultural showpiece destination flanked by warm Indian Ocean and soaring peaks. KwaZulu-Natal is South Africa’s most popular tourism destination, highly popular among visitors from throughout continental Africa and increasingly on the ‘must-see, must- do’ lists of discerning travelers. These travelers from all points of the globe seek and find a unique blend of sophistication, cultural diversity and excitement – in the most breathtaking setting imaginable.
About Durban Country Club
Since its opening in 1922 Durban Country Club’s par-72, 6157 metre course has been considered one of South Africa’s finest. The original design by Laurie Waters and George Waterman continues to compare with the best nearly 90 years later. As a result the Club boasts the unique claim of being the only course on the African continent to be rated in the Top 100 Golf Courses of the World by Golf Magazine (USA).
It’s not surprising that this excellent layout has been chosen to host the South African Open more often than any other courses – a total of 17 times, including the centennial event in 2010. The Club has recently appointed renowned golf course designer, Peter Matkovich, to ensure the course is in championship condition for the Volvo Golf Champions.
A combination of lush vegetation, sand dunes and stunning views of the Indian Ocean make this course both scenic and challenging. The design includes a pleasant mix of tall trees, thick bush, severe slopes and punishing bunkers, thus providing even the most discerning golfer with a demanding round of golf. It is a shot maker’s course and players are required to think their way around it. Durban Country Club provides the golfer with an opportunity to experience one of the finest and most unique golf courses in existence.
For more information on Durban Country Club please go to www.dcclub.co.za. Follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/DurbanCountryClub and Twitter www.twitter.com/DBNCountryClub.
(File photo:Gallo Images)
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