The Numbers Add up at 21st and Final Volvo Masters
28/10/08
Golf is essentially a game of numbers, shots and prize money being the vital statistics and on the eve of the 21st and final Volvo Masters, all the numbers add up to a dramatic grand finale to the European Tour’s longest running title sponsorship.
21 years of continuous sponsorship of the Volvo Masters is a record for the European Tour, Volvo, the only ever-present title sponsor over that period on the circuit they transformed in 1988 with the most comprehensive and overarching professional golf sponsorship of its generation.
21 years and, unless reigning champion Justin Rose can successfully defend the title he won in 2007, no player in the history of the event will have retained the prestigious title.
Hundreds of individual golfers have played the Volvo Masters, 32 different countries represented but, to date, only 19 players have experienced the joy of winning the end-of-season showpiece, arguably the European Tour’s most prestigious title, certainly the most difficult to attend.
Over the 21 years, more than 500,000 spectators have walked the hallowed fairways of Valderrama alone, another 50,000 at Montecastillo.
The 21st Volvo Masters boasts no fewer than eight Past Masters, the 57-man field boasting no fewer than 2010 European Tour titles between them, but who will win the 2011th?
And, in 2008, a record seven Spaniards are in the biggest championship held on their home soil, compared to three last year and what an end to a summer of Spanish sport that saw Raphael Nadal take the Wimbledon title, Spain lift UEFA 2008 and Carlos Sastre win the Tour de France.
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