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“Changing my shoes with Retief Goosen”
Tom Jamieson was the winner of the first prize of our Volvo World Match Play competition including proam spot and a night accommodation at Elba Estepona Thalasso Spa 5 star hotel. Tom kindly wrote a few words about his experience last week:
Jose,
Just a short note to say it was a pleasure to meet you last week and that I had an unforgettable experience at Finca Cortesin. I’ve put together a few paragraphs to try and capture the experience but I’m not sure words can do it justice!
Although I had entered the competition when I got the e-mail telling me I had won the prize I couldn’t believe it and my natural Scottish scepticism kicked in!! However, after a couple of emails and calls to establish it was indeed true I couldn’t wait to get there and attempt to play golf with some of the biggest names in the game.
After a couple of wrong turns on the way from Malaga I eventually arrived at the impressive Elba Estepona late on Tuesday evening and my Pro-am passes were waiting as promised. A quick call to Jessica to confirm when I had to report at the course and I was raring to go!
The day itself was fantastic, Volvo deserve a lot of praise for making it all possible and for providing some amazing gifts and souvenirs and the course itself was absolutely superb. It was also quite surreal changing my shoes with Retief Gossen sitting on one side of me and Sergio Garcia on the other!!
I was drawn to play with Scott Strange and he and his caddy, Adam, were very friendly and helped eased the nerves. The shotgun start was ideal and meant that I didn’t have to endure the trauma of trying to get the ball off the first tee in front of a large crowd! Thankfully I managed to play quite well and even experienced polite applause from the gallery for a couple of my shots!! The team finished the day on 5 under par but unfortunately this didn’t quite match the performance of the winners who managed to get round in the remarkable total of 19 under.
A lifetime of memories from a day to remember and thanks to all at Golf in Spain and Volvo for making it possible.
Cheers
Tom
Winners of our Volvo World Match Play Special Competition
This morning we extracted the winners of our special 2009 Volvo World Match Play competition. Special thanks to Volvo and IMG for allowing us to handle it and for offering such a great prices.
We created a list 10 winners with correct answers and based on their number of participations. The correct replies were:
1. By winning his group after Thursday and Thursday matches
2. Gary Player had to play 40 holes in 1973 for his victory.
3. UK is the most represented country among the players of the event.
The winners were:
1.- Tom Jamieson : 225
2.- Ovidio Vidal Hernandez : 1725
3.- Luis Sanchez Vaquero : 100
4.- Toni Ramirez Rosales : 300
5.- Alfonso Martínez Morán : 100
6.- jean-paul meyntjens : 150
7.- SERGIO MIGUEL MORENO CHACON : 225
8.- Félix Olavarrieta Bernardino : 100
9.- John Robilliard : 100
10.- Julian Cabrera Concha : 100
Prizes were assigned based on the availability of the winners, but the first one Tom Jamieson from the UK, confirmed in a couple of hours and booked his flight to be at Finca Cortesín for the proam next Wednesday.
We’ll try to get some comments from them during the event. Thanks to everyone for participating. We hope to see you all at Finca Cortesín this week.
Volvo World Match Play Groups and initial matches
The groups and matches for the ‘round-robin’ stage of the 16-man Volvo World Match Play Championship are announced below with the players competing in an all new format at Finca Cortesin from the 29th October to 1st November.
Colin Montgomerie, the 2010 European Ryder Cup Captain commented, “Seeing the final draw totally justifies Volvo’s decision to change to the group format. There really are some tantalising match ups and it is going to be a thoroughly entertaining week for all the spectators. I am delighted that Volvo’s inaugural year partnering the World Match Play Championship has attracted such a world class field with their refreshed qualifying criteria. I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing how some of these intriguing match ups unfold. This will be very interesting viewing for me with my Ryder Cup hat on but as anyone who knows me will suspect, a big part of me will be wishing I was out there as one of the 16 qualified players!”
The 16-man field is grouped based on their seeding as determined by today’s Official World Golf Ranking. On Thursday and Friday each player will play their group members in a round robin format over full 18-hole matches with points awarded based upon a win, tie or loss. The leading player from each group will qualify for the semi-final knock out stage with aggregate number of holes won used to determine tied positions.
The winner of each group will qualify for the semi finals to be held on Saturday which, along with the final on Sunday, will be played over 36 holes in the traditional head-to-head match play format. The semi finals will be contested between the winner of Groups A & B and C & D.
| GRUPO A SEVE BALLESTEROS | GRUPO B – MARK McCORMACK |
|---|---|
| Paul Casey
Retief Goosen Anthony Kim Scott Strange |
Sergio Garcia
Martin Kaymer Robert Allenby Oliver Wilson |
| GRUPO C – GUSTAF LARSON | GRUPO D – ASSAR GABRIELSSON |
| Henrik Stenson
Rory McIlroy Angel Cabrera Simon Dyson |
Lee Westwood
Camilo Villegas Ross Fisher Jeev Milkha Singh |
Matches and provisional times:
Westwood, Garcia, Stenson and Kaymer also confirmed for the Volvo World Match Play Championship
Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer are the latest golf stars to commit to the 2009 Volvo World Match Play Championship at Finca Cortesin from the 29th October to 1st November. Ranked 6th, 8th, 11th and 13th in the world respectively they qualify as the highest ranked available players not otherwise qualified on yesterday’s Official World Golf Ranking. Seven of the 11 players now confirmed are ranked in the world’s top 20 and the field looks sure to be the strongest ever with many tantalising match ups as the world’s best golfers go head to head in the new look Volvo World Match Play Championship.
Sergio Garcia: “I am delighted to have formally qualified for the first Volvo World Match Play to be held in Spain and I am really looking forward to playing in front of my home crowds. It is going to be an exciting few weeks for me playing at home in Spain. As well as playing in the Madrid Masters, I am hoping to defend my title at the Castello Masters and then try to go on to win the inaugural Volvo World Match Play Championship at Finca Cortesin. I think it will be fascinating for the spectators to be able to go and watch two such different events. Match play offers such a different spectacle and atmosphere for the fans and I think it is great for Spanish golf to be welcoming such a prestigious event.”
There are now only five places left to confirm in the field and this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship presents the last chance for the likes of Rory McIlroy, Ross Fisher, Angel Cabrera, Oliver Wilson and Spain’s very own Gonzalo Fernandez Castano to secure their places. The five highest ranked players as of Monday, 5th October on the European Tour Race to Dubai Rankings not otherwise qualified will complete the 16-man line up and the right to compete for the €3.25 million prize fund and a first prize of €750,000.
Tickets and accommodation can be purchased here at Golf in Spain with special ticket prices only till October 22nd.
Rural Golf
Who said golfing cannot be a relaxing experience? Ever thought of combining a rural atmosphere with your favorite sport?
Summer has reached it’s end. The daily routine is back, but surely you’re thinking of an Autumn golf getaway.
We’ve published a new package in Hotel Rural El Barreal, which is definitely an option to keep in mind when organizing your next escape. It is a bio-ecological house, thought to maintain the environmental guidelines that it is surrounded by.
Just imagine: golfing in the Club de Golf de León, only 5 minutes away. Afterwards, a quick meal in the city of León. And in the afternoon, take a walk in the surrounding nature, spend your time with a book next to the chimney or discover the different activities and therapeutical services that El Barreal can offer.
We know you’re convinced! So do not doubt it one more minute and ask us for a quote! And remember… at the moment this package is only available until the end of November, so don’t miss out on it!
Jeev Milkha Singh and Anthony Kim to play in Volvo World Match Play Championship
Jeev Milkha Singh and Anthony Kim have confirmed they will play in the 2009 Volvo World Match Play Championship at Finca Cortesin from the 29th October to 1st November.
Milkha Singh and Kim have taken up their places in the 16-man field which they qualified for as the highest ranked available players from Asia and the North America based upon the Official World Ranking as of 17th August and via the all new qualifying criteria – part of Volvo’s innovative ‘new look’ match play. They join Paul Casey, Retief Goosen, Camilo Villegas, Robert Allenby and Scott Strange who have already confirmed their entry into the 2009 Championship.
Jeev Milkha Singh, the 37-year-old Indian, who becomes the first player from the sub-continent to play in the professional golf’s longest-running match play championship explained why he is delighted to be playing, “I resurrected my career by winning two Volvo-sponsored events in 2006, the Volvo China Open and the Volvo Masters, which got me inside the top 50 in the world and qualified me for the ‘majors’ and WGC events. I owe a debt of gratitude to Volvo who were completely understanding when I was unable to defend my Volvo China Open title in 2007 because I had the opportunity to play in my first ‘major,’ the US Masters at Augusta and I have never forgotten that.”
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First Accomodation Offers for Volvo World Match Play
We’ve published a few initial offers of accomodation + tickets for Volvo World Match Play, from the 29th of October to the 1st of November. There are options from 112€ for 3 nights with tickets, and matching up with the holiday on November 1st, it will be difficult to find an excuse to not make it with a small golf getaway to the the Costa del Sol.
At the moment, we’ve published options in apartments, 4 and 5 star hotels, with and without golf… all with special offers for the first to reserve!
New blog for our contents
We just started with our new blogs in english and spanish.
All the old articles and information we’ll slowly be passed to this blog and we’ll use it from now on for announcements, new products and offers, etc.
We hope it we’ll become also a grate participation tool for our clients.
Link to some old articles
As we turn all our articles and new copy to the blog we left some older stories out of it and we thought they deserved at least a post with a link:
