Follow us on FacebookVolvo’s tradition in promoting Andalucía as a golf destination via the renowned Volvo Masters goes back 22 years to the inaugural event at Valderrama. In 2008, forced by the drastic change that the Dubai dollars brought to the European Tour, Volvo decided to end the cycle of the Volvo Masters and needed a new emblematic event that would not just become “another one” on the European Tour calendar. They then joined forces with IMG to continue the tradition of the World Match Play (always played at Wentworth until then) with a new format and down here, in southern Spain, as the Volvo Masters had been for 21 years.
Perhaps because the new board of Volvo (who had just arrived for the final Volvo Masters in 2008) didn’t have the time to fully understand the Andalucian attitude and the Spanish way of doing business, they didn’t involve Andalucía, the main co-sponsor for the last years of the event, as much as they should have. Perhaps they also didn’t consider the negative reaction that leaving Valderrama would mean to the Junta and suddenly, without anyone expecting it, at the prize giving ceremony of the last Volvo Masters at Valderrama, the words of the Minister (Consejero) for Tourism, Luciano Alonso, sounded like the Volvo-Andalucía partnership had completely ended.
