| George: European Senior Golf Tour @ Fancourt |
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The European Senior Golf Tour will visit South Africa for the first time next year with the inaugural Berenberg Bank Masters, earmarked for The Links at Fancourt in George from March 26-28 2010.
Senior professional golf has boomed throughout the world, particularly on the Champions Tour in America, where big event attendances can top 200 000. But the European Senior Tour is healthy too, with over 20 tournaments being played annually in 15 different countries.
Well-known European Senior Tour regulars include former world No1 Ian Woosnam, Sam Torrance, Costantino Rocca and Sandy Lyle, as well as South Africa's John Bland and Zimbabwe's Tony Johnstone.
Dr Hans-Walter Peters, managing partner of Berenberg Bank, which is Germany's oldest private bank, said: "It is a great honour for us to sponsor this first European Senior Tour event in South Africa, especially as it is just three months before the country hosts football's World Cup Fancourt owner Dr Hasso Plattner is also pleased. "We are delighted to welcome the European Senior Tour to Fancourt and the announcement enhances our reputation as a first class tournament venue."
South Africa will on the regular tour next summer host four events co-sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour and European Tour - the Alfred Dunhill Championship, the South African Open, the Joburg Open and, for the first time at a co-sanctioned level, the Africa Open.
"And now we have the Berenberg Bank Senior Masters, so all this is great for men's professional golf in our country," said Gareth Tindall, Sunshine Tour Commissioner. "This event could just be the impetus to creating a Sunshine Senior Tour to mirror the European Tour structure."
Gary Player will act as the tournament's ambassador.
The Links at Fancourt has previously hosted the Presidents Cup in 2003, the inaugural Women's World Cup of Golf in 2005, and the South African Open on the European Tour in 2006. Bland, who plays out of Fancourt, has been one of the stalwarts of senior golf both in Europe and America since turning 50 in 1995, the year he won the London Masters as a senior "rookie".
He also won five times on the Champions Tour.
Player was a sensation on the US Senior Tour (now the Champions Tour), winning nine senior Majors to go with the nine Major titles he collected on the regular tour.
Now 73, he still competes mostly in the US and regularly either breaks or equals his age. Courtesy: IOL
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