The forthcoming Seve Trophy contest between Continental Europe and Great Britain & Ireland at the Campo de Golf Parador El Saler, Valencia, Spain will now be played over four days in early November (6-9), rather than three.
Event promoters, Amen Corner and MediaPro, believe that the addition of an extra day’s play will generate significant additional exposure for the event and its sponsors and serve to avoid any problems with fading light during the fiercely-contested matches between Europe’s top golfers.
The new timetable has been endorsed by The European Tour and the leading broadcasters, including host broadcaster Canal Plus and the BBC, who will screen an additional two and a half hours of live coverage – bringing the total up to more than 11 hours of prime time exposure in the UK. Coverage will also be beamed to major networks in the USA, Latin America, Australia, Japan and Asia.
Once again, the Seve Trophy pitches a team representing Continental Europe and led by Severiano Ballesteros against a team drawn from Great Britain & Ireland captained by Colin Montgomerie in a Ryder Cup-style format of match-play golf. The Great Britain & Ireland team will attempt to retain the Seve Trophy after winning with a score of 14 ½ points to 11 ½ at Druids Glen, Ireland, in April 2002.
The new format will see fourball matches played on both Thursday and Friday; morning greensomes and afternoon foursomes on Saturday; and the traditional ten singles matches on Sunday. A Pro-Am will also feature on Wednesday, 5 November as part of the event.
Seve Ballesteros, who is determined to regain the Trophy he first raised at Sunningdale in 2000, believes that the addition of an extra day will help the players come to terms with the demanding format and one of the most difficult links courses in Europe.
‘Having another day to play fourball matches will be less tiring and give the players the chance to bring out their best for the watching fans,’ said Seve.
‘I just want the fans to know that the extra day is not there to help me finish my singles match with Monty!’ Seve is unbeaten in the two Trophy singles matches played against Colin Montgomerie so far.
But rival captain Colin Montgomerie, who excelled as Europe’s top scorer in The 2002 Ryder Cup, is confident about his prospects of leading Great Britain & Ireland to another victory. ‘Playing Seve and his team in Spain will be a great challenge and I believe our team will be strong enough to retain the Trophy.’
Qualification for this year’s Seve Trophy event is similar to that for The 2004 Ryder Cup, with, in addition to the two captains, four players from the Official World Golf Ranking, four more from the Volvo Order of Merit and one selected by each captain. Qualifying began with the BMW Asian Open last November and will be finalised following the Telefónica Open de Madrid on 26 October.
The Seve Trophy event proved its value to European golfers last year when Paul McGinley and Lee Westwood, who performed well in the contest at Druids Glen, went on to record significant victories for Europe in The 34th Ryder Cup matches at The De Vere Belfry.
The Comunitat Valencia, official sponsor of this year’s Seve Trophy event, sees the tournament as part of its promotional strategy to position and maintain itself as a prime tourist, golfing and leisure destination worldwide.
The imposing Golf Course Parador El Saler is ranked among the top ten golf courses in Europe. A venue for Spanish Open championships in 1984, 1989 and 2001, the course record is held by new Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer, who shot a sensational 62 (ten under par) in 1984.
Prize money for the Seve Trophy stands at €2.2 million Euros – with €150,000 for each member of the winning team.
For further information, please contact:
John Collard, Seve Trophy Press Director,
on + 44 (0)20 8879 5780 (office) / +44 (0)7785 304784 (mobile)
johnc@sports-impact.com
or
María Acacia Lopez-Bachiller at mariacacia@teleline.es