many events such as the Volvo PGA Championship and together with their backing for the Volvo Order of Merit they also attracted many other bluechip brands into our sport.” By the mid-1990s, with Volvo’s European Tour engine running smoothly, the brand looked east, to Asia in general and China in particular, becoming the first western brand to engage with golf in the Middle Kingdom and rolling-out a pan-Asian programme to mirror its European initiative. This year’s Volvo Golf Champions at Fancourt takes the total number of professional golf events under Volvo’s sponsorship to 125, and counting, with the iconic Volvo World Match Play Championship at Finca Cortesín in May Volvo’s third event of the 2012 season, following April’s Volvo China Open. “Volvo is proud to be the only
ever-present title sponsor on the European Tour,” says Per Ericsson, President, Volvo Event Management. “We continually monitor our return on investment and it is clear that golf continues, after 24 highly-successful years, to deliver the results we require.”
Million But there is a second string to Volvo’s golfing bow. For 25 years it has organised a worldwide amateur golf series – formerly the Volvo Masters Amateur, now the Volvo World Golf Challenge – with almost a million club golfers from 30 different nations having taken part. “Our amateur golf programme is truly unique,” insists Per Ericsson, explaining, “Volvo is the only big brand that ties its amateur and professional events together. Our world finalists in the Volvo World Golf Challenge will play with the professionals on the
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Friday of the Volvo Golf Champions, on the European Tour and live on worldwide TV, after having played their own World Final over the sister course of The Links, the demanding Montagu Course at Fancourt.” Meanwhile, with golf now an Olympic sport, from Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and beyond, Per Ericsson sees significant opportunities. “Golf is growing in countries such as China, where Volvo is already the leading golf sponsor,” he says, “and in places such as India, Russia and Brazil and at Volvo, we can make business through people’s passion for golf – a sport played by a great many of our customers and prospective clients.” South Africa may be a new destination for Volvo in Golf but it’s business as usual – rolling out another world-class golf championship for Volvo, the Tour and its players to be proud of. n