After a meeting at St Andrews, the Championship Committee announced that the inaugural Dunhill Links Championship will take place in Scotland October 18-21. Conceived as a celebration of Links golf, the 72 hole event will be decided over some of the world’s best known and respected links courses: The Old Course at St. Andrews; the Championship Course at Carnoustie and the highly regarded Kingsbarns Golf Links.

Professionals including Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, Colin Montgomerie, Retief Goosen, Ian Woosnam, Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke and Steve Elkington have confirmed their participation in the tournament. Additionally, a strong line up of amateurs have been confirmed including Michael Douglas, Sir Steven Redgrave, Ian Botham, Gavin Hastings, Kapil Dev, Sir Bobby Charlton, Zinzan Brooke, Kenny Dalgleish, Gary Lineker, Nigel Mansell and Marco van Basten. The full line-up will be announced in due course.

With the postponement of the Ryder Cup, this tournament becomes Britain’s and Europe’s most prestigious golf tournament of the year after the Open Championship. Prize money remains unaltered at $5 million, shared between the top 70 professionals taking part, with a first place purse of $800,000.

The Dunhill Links Championship will be televised live from all three golf courses on all four days on SKY SPORTS TV in the UK, on the Golf Channel in the USA and Japan, on M-Net in South Africa and in over 120 countries world wide.

For further information, please contact:

Nina Fiddian-Green
Richemont International Limited
Tel: 020 7514 2749
E-mail: nfg@richemont.co.uk
www.dunhilllinks.com

Fiona Foster
Karen Earl Limited
Tel: 0207 243 7103
E-mail: FionaF@karen-earl.co.uk