Volvo in Golf – A Change of Course
The Volvo brand and the game of golf are synonymous not only with each other, but also with quality, integrity, longevity.
Indeed, it was Volvo that pioneered the development of the European Tour as it is known today, the Volvo Tour, the Volvo Order of Merit, the Volvo PGA Championship and until 2008, the Volvo Masters.
And Volvo was the first western brand to seek out business and golf sponsorship opportunities in an emerging China, long before the world’s most dynamic economy began to expand at the same pace as its new found passion for golf.
What is more, today, in 2009, Volvo remains a title sponsor on the European Tour, renowned for its passion, respected for its loyalty, a remarkable 110 professional golf events worldwide under the trademark Volvo banner.
And that is not all; Volvo also has a passion for amateur golf, club golf, the game played by over 60 million people on over 30,000 golf courses in almost every country of the world.
Through the Volvo Masters Amateur, Volvo talks the international language of golf, bringing golfers together from all points of the compass in the Volvo Masters Amateur World Final.
In some respects 2008 was the end of an era as the 21st and final Volvo Masters was staged at its spiritual home of Valderrama.
Dane Søren Kjeldsen became the 20th champion of a title that was never to be successfully defended.
But in other respects, 2009 means very much the same for Volvo in Golf as the brand hosts its 15th successive staging of the Volvo China Open, the national open golf championship of the world’s most dynamic nation in the 2008 Olympic city of Beijing.
And Volvo’s reign in Spain continues too.
Having waved a farewell to the Volvo Masters, another golfing legend, the World Match Play Championship, launched in 1964 comes under Volvo’s award-winning direction and it’s all change too.
The Volvo World Match Play Championship, the 45th time that world-famous event whose winner’s are a ‘Who’s Who’ of golfing greats relocates to Spain, to the same Anadalucía region that played host to 21 years of the Volvo Masters.
The venue for the rejuvenated epic is Finca Cortesín, the epitome of class; a magnificent match play course laid-out by renowned designer Cabell Robinson augmented by a classic clubhouse and a hotel of breathtaking luxury, which will see 16 of the best golfers in the world go head-to-head in what many still consider to be the purest form of golf, man against man, match play golf where winner takes all.
And as the Volvo China Open tees-off in April, so too will over 75,000 amateur golfers in two dozen countries around the globe, and all with one common objective in mind.
To battle through local, regional and national qualifying events for the honour of representing their country and the opportunity of playing the World Final over the self-same Finca Cortesín course within hours of the Volvo World Match Play Championship winner has been crowned.
At the end of the year, the showpiece on the Asian Tour, the Volvo Masters of Asia, takes place at the Thai Country Club, Bangkok, from December 10 until December 13 2009.
For Volvo in Golf, there may be a change of course but one of the most successful partnerships in golf prevails.