Simmers Enterprises Ltd has announced the inaugural International Collegiate, the first-ever NCAA golf tournament to be staged in Europe. Ten of the best college golf teams from the US will be invited to play in a 54 hole tournament on 6th and 7th September 2002, which will also involve five university teams from the UK. The official launch of the tournament took place at the Golf Coaches of America Association (GCAA) Convention in Orlando on 23rd January 2002.
The host venue for the tournament will be one of Scotland’s finest new venues, the fabulous new 5-star golf resort, St Andrews Bay, which is part of the Chateau Elan Group. Situated five miles from St Andrews, the resort boasts two superb championship courses, with the tournament to be staged on the resort’s Torrance Course, the first course to be designed by Sam Torrance, the current European Ryder Cup Captain. The championship course, the hotel and clubhouse command superb views over the town of St Andrews, the “Home of Golf” and the Tay Estuary.
The International Collegiate is an official tournament of the NCAA, which is renowned as possibly the strongest breeding ground of the top golfers in the world. In the past a whole range of superstars have cut their competitive teeth in collegiate golf. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, David Duval and Colin Montgomerie all competed at collegiate level and more recently former British Walker Cup stars, Luke Donald and Paul Casey, also shone at this level before embarking on successful professional careers.
The International Collegiate will offer the future stars of the golfing world a chance to broaden their competitive horizons and, at the same time, compete at the highest level at the “Home of Golf”.
Each of the ten US colleges will be supported by a party of ten alumni golfers, who will travel to Scotland on an exclusive golfing tour and have the chance to represent their college again, in the International Collegiate Alumni Cup, to be played at Turnberry, Prestwick and Glasgow Gailes. The Alumni Tour will then travel to St Andrews Bay to play in a special College Am event with the current college golfers prior to the main tournament.
With the presence of ten top US college coaches in St Andrews, Simmers Enterprises plan to team up with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club to stage a University Golf Coaching Conference during the tournament week, offering a forum for the development of University Golf programmes in the UK, which is currently being promoted and supported by the R&A University Bursaries Scheme.
The International Collegiate is the brainchild of Simmers Enterprises, the Glasgow based events management business. The company’s founder and managing director, Mark Simmers has a wealth of experience in golf tournament management. He spent five years with IMG managing over 50 golf tournaments, including the World Match Play Championship and the Johnnie Walker Asian Classic, before moving to J. A. Tonge Ltd where he managed the Loch Lomond World Invitational and the Solheim Cup
Simmers Enterprises established a relationship with the NCAA, through their account executive, James Bunch, who played for North Carolina State from 1994-99. The tournament and the Alumni Tour will be managed to the same high standards of a professional golf championship to complement the standards of golf played by the NCAA College teams.
International Collegiate www.simmers-enterprises.com/collegegolf