{"id":7200,"date":"2009-12-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-04T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.golfinspain.es.local\/b\/2009\/12\/05\/uhh-but-what-about-that-other-one-the-world-thingy\/"},"modified":"2019-11-07T10:59:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T09:59:01","slug":"uhh-but-what-about-that-other-one%2e%2e%2e-the-world-thingy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/2009\/12\/uhh-but-what-about-that-other-one%2e%2e%2e-the-world-thingy\/","title":{"rendered":"Uhh, but what about that other one\u2026 the World thingy?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ortiz-Pati\u00f1o,
Ortiz-Pati\u00f1o, Alonso and Waters (photo by Juan Jos\u00e9 \u00dabeda)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maybe it was the winter chill drifting across the peninsular, causing temporary memory loss. Perhaps it was a simple oversight by an inattentive press secretary? Or, more likely, it was a deliberately and carefully calculated way of saying, \u201cToma ya!<\/em> (loosely translated as \u201cUp yours!\u201d).<\/p>\n

Something strange happened in Los Barrios \u2013 the rather oddly chosen Campo de Gibraltar venue for a rather important announcement by the Junta de Andaluc\u00eda (regional government).<\/p>\n

In the words of Luciano Alonso, Consejero (or Minister) for Commerce, Tourism and Sport, \u201cThe Junta de Andaluc\u00eda and Club de Golf Valderrama have been working together to bring back a truly great European Tour event to our region and to bring the recognition that Andaluc\u00eda deserves with an international competition of the very highest quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBring back\u201d? \u201cTruly great European Tour event\u201d? \u201cBring the recognition\u2026\u201d? \u201c…international competition of the very highest quality\u201d?<\/p>\n

What was that event which was held at Finca Cortes\u00edn barely a month ago? Oh yes, the Volvo World Match Play Championship, trumpeted \u2013 arguably, but with some justification \u2013 as the biggest event in Andaluc\u00eda since the 1997 Ryder Cup at Valderrama. \u201cArguably\u201d, because Valderrama had also hosted umpteen Volvo Masters up to the final edition in 2008. But \u201cwith some justification\u201d, because the match play field was certainly more international than the Volvo Masters, and with an even more venerable past.<\/p>\n

So Andaluc\u00eda did receive some quite considerable recognition this year, but here\u2019s the rub: for whatever reason (and there are various conspiracy theories involving the triumvirate of Junta de Andaluc\u00eda, Volvo and Valderrama), the Junta effectively ignored the World Match Play, to the undisguised annoyance of Volvo and Finca Cortes\u00edn and the incredulity of impartial observers.<\/p>\n

After having been closely involved with the Volvo Masters since its inception in 1988, and a major bank-roller of the tournament as a key sponsor, the Junta seemed to want nothing to do with the World Match Play, even the many photo opportunities politicians like Alonso so love and thrive on.<\/p>\n

In fact, at the Los Barrios press conference Alonso did allude to that rupture when he said the absence of \u201cAndaluc\u00eda\u201d in the World Match Play title had given him a \u201cfeeling of sadness\u201d, which \u2013 combined with the presence of billboards in the Campo de Gibraltar declaring that the new tournament \u201cis now ours\u201d \u2013 does give an indication of the Junta\u2019s pique.<\/p>\n

But enough hand-wringing. The announcement that the Andaluc\u00eda Masters at Valderrama (28-31 October) will be the final 2010 European Tour event in Europe before the circus (possibly) returns to Dubai for the grand finale, following the previous announced news that the Open de Andaluc\u00eda will be the first Tour event in Europe, from 25 to 28 March at M\u00e1laga\u2019s Parador course, is great news for the region.<\/p>\n

To return to Alonso, \u201cThe national and international exposure that the Andaluc\u00eda Masters will bring to our region will show our support of this event to be a worthwhile investment and will have a very positive economic impact on our region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Felipe Ortiz-Pati\u00f1o, president of Club de Golf Valderrama, \u201cToday is a giant step not only for Valderrama but for tourism in Andaluc\u00eda. After a year of discussions and meetings, the Junta de Andaluc\u00eda, The European Tour and Valderrama announce their intention to create a new event which will be one of Europe’s most important and which, over the years, could establish itself as one of the \u2018not to miss\u2019 events on The European Tour calendar. We at Valderrama consider ourselves privileged to be working with such strong partners in creating an event of this magnitude and we thank Junta de Andaluc\u00eda not only for their support in this new event but for all their support over the years: without them the Ryder Cup, the WGC-American Express World Championship or the Volvo Masters would not have been possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

And finally Keith Waters, director of international policy for the European Tour, \u201cIt is a great pleasure to announce the Andaluc\u00eda Masters for quite obvious reasons. The European Tour\u2019s partnerships with both Junta de Andaluc\u00eda and Club de Golf Valderrama are among the strongest in golf, so to be able to further strengthen our relationship gives us immense satisfaction. We look forward to returning to one of the great venues of European golf for what will be one of the highlights of the 2010 International Schedule and we thank our friends at the Junta de Andaluc\u00eda and the Pati\u00f1o family at Valderrama for their commitment to The European Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

No details have been released about the format of the event, and it does seem to fall short of previous boasts of a new championship to rival the Volvo Masters and WGCs (no Tiger, no best international field since the Ryder Cup, etc.) but there will be \u20ac3 million in prizemoney and it is believed the field will comprise 80 to 100 players, with a halfway cut.<\/p>\n

It also means there could be three, maybe four, European Tour events in Andaluc\u00eda in 2010 (the Open de Espa\u00f1a is predicted to return to Sevilla), and as many as seven in Spain \u2013 also taking into account the customary events in Mallorca, Castell\u00f3n and Madrid. No date has been announced for the World Match Play, but it could move to the first week of October.<\/p>\n

Though\u2026 what if it were kept at its current slot on the Tour and clashed with the Andaluc\u00eda Masters. Silly, of course, and just a mischievous scribe\u2019s musings, but what a delicious irony that would be. \u201cToma ya!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe it was the winter chill drifting across the peninsular, causing temporary memory loss. Perhaps it was a simple oversight by an inattentive press secretary? Or, more likely, it was a deliberately and carefully calculated way of saying, \u201cToma ya! (loosely translated as \u201cUp yours!\u201d).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mbp_gutenberg_autopost":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/cont\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Ortiz-Pati\u00f1o-Alonso-y-Waters-foto-Juan-Jos\u00e9-\u00dabeda1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}