The European Tour will reinforce its formidable partnership with Andalucía and the magnificent Club de Golf Valderrama in 2010 with the announcement that a new tournament, the Andalucía Masters, will join the Open de Andalucía on next year’s International Schedule.
The €3,000,000 event will be staged at Valderrama from 28-31 October 2010 and will be the last event of the year on The European Tour’s home continent before the season-ending finale of The Dubai World Championship in November.
With the Open de Andalucía playing host to continental Europe’s first tournament on the 2010 Schedule there will be a symbolic feel to Spain’s glorious Andalucía region next year as it signals the beginning and end of the season on mainland Europe.
A return to Valderrama, the iconic venue that played host to The Tour’s season-ending Volvo Masters for 21 glorious years, can only enhance the appeal of the Andalucía Masters.
Luciano Alonso, Consejero de Tourismo, Comercio y Deportes for Junta de Andalucía (the Andalucían Government), said: “Junta de Andalucía 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 Andalucía deserves with an international competition of the very highest quality.
“The national and international exposure that the Andalucía 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 to our region.”
Felipe Ortiz-Patiño, President of Club de Golf Valderrama, said: “Today is a giant step not only for Valderrama but for tourism in Andalucía. After a year of discussions and meetings, the Junta de Andalucia, 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 ‘not to miss’ 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 Andalucía 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.”
Keith Waters, Director of International Policy for The European Tour, said: “It is a great pleasure to announce the Andalucía Masters for quite obvious reasons. The European Tour’s partnership with both Junta de Andalucía 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 Andalucía and the Patiño family at Valderrama for their commitment to The European Tour.”
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