The build up to new mixed gender professional tournament being held in Jordan next year began in earnest earlier this week, when the trophy for the Jordan Mixed Open was unveiled at the World Travel Market in London.
Dr Abed Al-Razzaq Arabiyat, managing director of Jordan Tourism Board, was joined by representatives of the Challenge Tour, Staysure Tour and Ladies European Tour at Excel to unveil the trophy for brand new event, which is being held at at Ayla Golf Club in Jordan between April 4-6, 2019.
The trophy, which is constructed of 15kg of cut crystal, will be presented to the winner of the first tournament in world golf to see professionals from the men’s, ladies’ and senior’s tours compete over the same golf course for the same prize purse. They will be joined by a leading amateur from the men’s, ladies’ and over-50’s games.
Designed using an ancient ‘triquetra’ shape, the trophy bears a design featuring a circle passing through three interconnected loops, with each loop representative of the event’s co-sanctioning tours.
After unveiling the trophy, Dr Al-Razzaq Arabiyat, said: “Golf is central to the vision of Aqaba as a tourist destination and of Ayla as one of the world’s most forward-thinking residential and recreational communities. Accompanied by the Jordan Tourism Board’s dual commitment to the promotion of Jordan to travelling golfers and to creating new air travel routes in order to welcome more visitors than ever before, we believe the Jordan Mixed Open presented by Ayla is set to be a landmark event which further endorses and showcases our offering, announcing Jordan onto the world golfing map.”
David MacLaren, Head of the Staysure Tour, said: “We have seen huge levels of engagement when male and female professional golfers have had the opportunity to compete alongside each other, as they do at the Vic Open and in Morocco at the Trophée Hassan II and Lalla Meryem Cup, or against each other as we saw at GolfSixes and the European Golf Team Championships this year. The Jordan Mixed Open adds a new dimension to mixed tournament golf with men competing against women for the first time in a stroke play event and seeing the trophy first-hand has only increased our excitement for next April’s tournament.”
Mark Lichtenhein, chairman of the Ladies European Tour, said: “The Jordan Mixed Open will be a unique spectacle with both male and female golfers competing for the same trophy and there is no doubt that all LET players will have a keen eye on the Triquetra.”