The European Tour and Volvo Event Management confirmed the new global golf strategy for Volvo which will extend, by a further three years, the partnership to a minimum of 20 years, enhance the commitment to Tour competition and end the title sponsorship of the PGA Championship.
The Volvo Masters Andalucia, which was launched in 1988 after Volvo became the first overall corporate sponsor to the European Tour, and the Volvo China Open, to be played in November for the first time on the European Tour international schedule, have both been contracted through to the end of 2007.
The 2004 Volvo PGA Championship will close Volvo’s title sponsorship of this event.
Said Ken Schofield (pictured), executive director of the European Tour: “The growth and development of the Volvo PGA Championship has paralleled that of the Tour with the prize fund, during Volvo’s tenure as title sponsor, increasing from B420,000 to B3,750,000 and we would like to thank them for their wonderful support of this title.
“The PGA Championship will continue in 2005 with a new title-sponsor and the legacy left by Volvo meets with the principle that we should all leave anything in life better than we found it.”
Added Mel Pyatt (also pictured), president and CEO of Volvo Event Management: “First and foremost it is important to stress that professional golf and the partnership with the European Tour remains fundamental to Volvo’s future strategy in Europe and in the Far East.
“The decision to end the title sponsorship of the PGA Championship was taken following a year-long review of Volvo’s global golf strategy which identified the business benefits of increasing investment in Asia, and particularly in China, while maintaining a strong and healthy relationship with golf at every level in Europe.
“We were charged by the numerous Volvo companies around the world to channel our energies into a new challenge, and the Volvo Masters Andalucia provides the perfect competitive vehicle on which we can further develop a major new global amateur tournament. In the first place the Volvo Masters Andalucia maintains a very strong position for Volvo in the European domestic market, where we have supported events in Britain, Germany, Italy and Sweden, and secondly it will play a central part in Volvo’s new and strategic golfing programme.
“The Volvo PGA Championship has been a cornerstone of our strategy for 17 years, and in that time it has surpassed all our expectations in terms of creating brand awareness, delivering media coverage and fulfilling our many business objectives in the UK and Worldwide. It is a Championship which we know will continue to grow in importance and prestige.
The Volvo Masters Andalucia will be played at Valderrama, Sotogrande, in Spain on October 28-31 with a minimum prize fund of B3,750,000.
The first Volvo China Open, to be jointly sanctioned by the European Tour and the Asian Tour, will take place at Shanghai Silport Golf Club on November 25-28, 2004.
Volvo has restructured its sponsorship of golf – extending his long-term commitment to the sport, but ending its naming rights deal of the PGA Championship at Wentworth.
