Crown Golf, Europe’s largest golf owner/operator, is to promote and sponsor the English Seniors Open at St Mellion International Hotel Golf & Country Club, Saltash, near Plymouth, in Cornwall from September 15-17, 2006.
The 2006 English Seniors Open, which will be played over 54 holes on the Nicklaus Course at St Mellion, will carry a prize fund of £150,000 and Eamonn Darcy, Mark James, Tony Johnstone, Carl Mason, Josà© Rivero and Sam Torrance are all potential challengers for the £22,500 first prize.
Mason, who won the English Seniors Open in 2003 and 2004 on the way to finishing Number One on the Order of Merit in both years, is the course record holder at St Mellion and will be looking to make European Seniors Tour history by becoming the first golfer to successfully win the same event three times in succession.
He said, “I am delighted to receive the chance to win a third English Seniors Open title. All the players are thrilled with the news of Crown Golf’s entry onto our Tour and with the fact that we are going back to a venue where so many of us enjoyed playing on The European Tour. I finished fourth in the Benson & Hedges International Open at St Mellion in 1995 when I shot a 63 – a course record.”
John Weir of Crown Golf, said, “We are delighted that St Mellion International Hotel Golf & Country Club is returning to the professional tournament schedule and excited that the English Seniors Open will offer an opportunity for all the leading players to challenge for a top prize on the Nicklaus Course.”
Andy Stubbs, Managing Director of the European Seniors Tour, said, “We are excited by the arrival of Crown Golf as promoters and sponsors on the European Seniors Tour and also with the opportunity that it provides for many of our members to return to a course where they have enjoyed great times. We look forward to the English Seniors Open now developing during a time when a number of famous faces will come on board – Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam – to name but a few.”
The St Mellion International Hotel Golf & Country Club was opened in 1976. Set in 450 acres of rolling countryside, St Mellion has two courses and is undisputedly one of the finest golf resorts in the United Kingdom. The Nicklaus Course officially opened in July 1988, and was the first golf course Jack Nicklaus designed in the United Kingdom.
Crown Golf is Europe’s largest golf owner/operator. They have 31 golf and leisure venues in the United Kingdom with clubs that offer modern, well-appointed facilities in tranquil surroundings.
European Tour www.europeantour.com
Crown Golf www.crown-golf.co.uk
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